A New Journey
by Skalathrax
Summary: A continuation of my other story: A Gamer's Journey. This follows the story of the soldiers from my play through of XCOM 2, from their perspectives. Rated M for violence, gore, swears, and possible hints towards sexual scenes later on (though no actual descriptions). Due to technical difficulties this story has been discontinued, and will be re-vamped in story 'The Final Journey'
1. Chapter 1: Rage and Nerds

Harold swung the pipe into the aliens neck, not even surprised as his strength took the creatures head clean off, spray orange blood in all directions, as it's arteries pumped blood out of the stump. He vaguely remembered a time when doing that would have surprised him, but those memories were hazy, and felt like a lifetime ago, back when he could feel anything beyond anger. He felt a pinch in his side, and knew from experience that he'd just taken a hit to the side, probably a broken rib or something, but it was a glancing hit. Without even turning to look at the alien, he hurled the pipe. Not expecting such a response, the ADVENT Trooper had no time to duck back into cover, and took it straight in the head, it cracked through the helmet, into the aliens head, and out the back, pinning it to the ground where it twitched once before staying still in death. There was a shout in the alien language, and Harold turned to see the Officer of the group beginning to flee. Harold immediately flew after it.

The alien was a gene-enhanced soldier, designed to be able to out-run and out-strength any human in a straight match. It was in it's prime of fitness, whereas Harold was approaching his late 50's, and knew the area better than Harold. It had a slight head start and could call in re-enforcements if it could get a few seconds. It had on chance whatsoever.

Before the alien had even gotten 2 steps, Harold grabbed hold of the trailing cape, wrenching the alien back off it's feet, and spun, like an Olympic Hammer-Thrower, releasing as he completed the second rotation, sending the alien flying into a wall, where it slammed into it with a sickening crunch. It fell back to the ground, leaving a crater in the wall. Harold felt a dim amount of disappointment that the crater wasn't the shape of the alien. He looked around for more targets and, seeing none, braced himself, gritting his teeth. The pain came from the depth of his mind, as if someone was jamming an ice-pick into his brain, and wiggling it. It was not a physical pain, he never felt that anymore, even the hole in his side felt like little more than a bee sting, it was a mental pain. Harold didn't know where it came from, but he knew it only happened when he had nothing to fight. His life had become constant pain unless he was killing things, he stumbled back a step from the pain, before recovering. He called it the Hunt-Pain, since it occurred during his time of hunting down more targets, which formed the majority of his time for the last 2 decades.

 _Why did I come here?_ Harold thought as he looked around. He only ever entered cities when he needed supplies, and even then he only entered the outskirts, raided a store, and left before ADVENT forces could arrive. Sometimes he wondered why he even kept fighting them like this, he could just run into a city and fight every soldier he found, they'd send more and more until he was overwhelmed, it would be a good way to go, and he'd be free of the Hunt-Pain. But he wouldn't. He didn't know why, but something told him to keep fighting In the way he was. He couldn't remember why, some voice telling him to carry on, but it was dim, as if something was shouting from a mile underwater, and the more he tried to remember it, the more it faded back from his mind.

His ears pricked up as he heard a noise. He recognised it instantly. Gunfire. Not the slight whirr of the magnetic field powering up of ADVENT soldiers, but the door-slam bang of a slug thrower, a weapon that used kinetic energy to launch bullets at the foe, but it was muffled, anyone else wouldn't be able to tell it apart from normal city noise, only Harold's constant vigilance, and another voice deep in his mind that told him to listen out for that, allowed him to noticed it. He turned towards the noise, and saw the top of a gigantic statue. Gold-Plated and shaped like a humanoid figure with 4 arms and incredibly thin limbs, he recognised it, but, again, he couldn't remember where, but he felt his rage increase at the sight, the hunt-pain began fading as he found a target for his wrath, as he remember why he had come here. He reached into his pocket, and pulled out the explosive he'd taken, checking that it was still functional, he put it back in his pocket, and went over to the ADVENT soldier's he'd killed. That was why there was so few soldiers, something about a celebration elsewhere in the city. Harold picked up the Magnetic rifle of the soldier he'd decapitated, taking the spare magazine's it had. Then going over to the alien he'd impaled through the skull with the pipe, ripping the pipe back out, and shaking off the grey-matter, skin, and bone-fragments from the end. Before turning, and running towards the noise. Something in the back of his mind made him want to shout, and he had long since given up resisting that voice, even if he never knew what it was telling him to say "X-COM!"

* * *

 **Alice dropped** from the Skyranger, double checking the bolt on her rifle to ensure it was in full functioning order. 'The Nerd Brigade' dropped down around her.

Sean 'Legs' O'Connor, their stealth man, came down first. He was slightly on the short side, with a receding hair line of brown hair, and slight wrinkles on his face showing that he was older than the rest, 48 where the rest of them were in their late 20's. He was amazingly quiet, many people on the avenger had nearly jumped out of their skin as their hear Sean's soft voice from behind them after thinking they were alone, despite the fact that his legs were made of metal. Alice didn't know the exact story, but she knew he'd lost his legs during an altercation with ADVENT around 13 years ago, but had been given robotic replacements by Dr. Shen, you'd expect him to make a lot of noise, but apparent Lilly knew her stuff, and not even a whirr could be heard from the Scout's legs, some might consider giving him the nickname of 'legs' would be cruel, but Sean enjoyed it, he even started the nickname himself. A kindly smile on his face as usual, he was the grandfather of the group, the kindly voice, the calm in the raging storm of combat.

William 'Hax' Wright, their group hacker, he was rather prone to going off mid-battle to hack into some ADVENT database, but more often than not he found something useful, and didn't bring the ADVENT forces down on their heads, most times. He fixed his cap and headset, tapped the equipment on his back, Alice wasn't sure which of it was for hacking, and which of it was for communication, but he did both. He had that cocky grin on his face that he never lost, even in the midst of a fire-fight. The best way to describe him was something he often said himself 'I am a hacker and I must hack'.

Roman 'Boom' Garza, the explosive expert in the group, he was a short man, just a little over 5 foot. He didn't speak much (the exact opposite of what you'd expect by someone named Boom) but when he did speak, everyone knew it was important. His face was impassive, black haired, buzzed short, with brown eyes. Despite being the shortest of the group, he was easily the most intimidating.

And herself. Alice 'Archive' Molander. She was the leader of the group in the field, she had long brown hair, tied into a pony-tail so it didn't get in the way during combat. She wasn't very remarkable physically, at least she didn't think so. She scanned the area and began issuing orders.

"Legs, scout ahead. We don't want to be surprised by ADVENT"

"Yes Mam" Sean still had a slight Irish accent, and he began moving forward, moving surprisingly fast without making any sound.

"Hax, Boom, we'll take the high ground" she said, motioning towards a drain pipe leading to the roof of a building just to their left.

"Gotcha" William replied, he had a bit of a British accent, and Boom gave a nod, and began moving towards the pipe, Alice following behind.

They moved across the roof, getting into cover behind the railings, giving them a view over the field below, and a great position to fire from.

"Troopers" Sean's soft voice came over the coms before Alice noticed them, and she turned to see them, they were standing in a light group, moving slowly across the field, obviously not in any hurry, regular patrol probably. The soldiers never expected XCOM to be able to get this deep into their cities without alarm's being raised. But they were well disciplined, and would react very quickly when they engaged.

"Anything else?" Alice asked, keeping an eye on the troopers while scanning the rest of the area

"Nothing I can see" Sean replied "But they could be on the other side of the statue"

"Too far to respond" Alice replied, she had long ago figured out the range that ADVENT could hear their weapons, and knew they wouldn't respond to the noise straight away. "Fire at will"

"Not at Will" William replied "ADVENT"

Alice smiled to herself, he did that every time, and lined up one of the aliens head in her sights. And fired off a short burst, barely a second later, William and Roman fired as well, and 2 of the Troopers went down before they would even react. One almost made it into cover before Sean popped out of his cover, and brought down the last Trooper with a burst into it's head and chest.

"Nice job" Alice said "Sean, wait up, they'll be on alert after hearing that" Although they wouldn't respond immediately, they would have heard that, and would be more cautious, their training was strict, and Alice could appreciate how much it would take to condition every one of their soldiers to respond like that, but it was also something they could used, the reactions of the ADVENT forces was easy to predict.

Without a moments hesitation, Roman hoped over the ledge, grabbing onto the lip that came off, then dropping down, and landing in a 3-point crouch in the grass to muffle the sound of the landing, before getting into cover. Alice and William followed suit a second later, dropping down and taking cover. Alice looked over, noticing the strange box-art near to the statue, it was a good position, slightly raised, and tall enough to completely cover someone. "Legs, Hax, head to the box. Boom, over there" she motioned to the area in front of the statue, which would put him in a good position if they moved around that side of the statue, and it wouldn't take him more than a second to re-position to flank them if they came around the other side. Alice began moving towards the Box-art, taking position behind a bench, she wasn't as covered as the others, but she could pull back if she needed to.

"Troopers and Officer, far side" Sean said as he opened a barrage of bullets behind the statue, a second after that volley, Alice saw one of the troopers come around the corner of the statue, and she opened fire, she saw a spattering of orange on it, and finished off the wounded alien with a burst of shots to the chest. The alien fell to the side with a screech. Alice heard more gunshots and turned to see a trooper that had apparently been attempting to flank, as it came around the other side of the statue, and straight at the waiting gun of Boom, who knocked it back with a single shot to the chest, and into a burst from William. That just left the officer, but Alice couldn't see it. Half a second later she saw a slight red beam of light come out from behind the statue, followed by the whirr of an alien Mag Weapon, and the Officer opened fire from behind the statue, at Sean. She heard a shout of pain from the box, she was about to call for Roman, but before she'd even uttered the first syllable of 'Boom' he was already next to her, and was hurling a grenade, she took out her own and sent it following the other. 2 explosions sounded out and a loud scream of pain from the alien, but she knew the strength of the armour of an Officer, it would still be alive, just, but it would be staggered, just long enough for Will-

She had been expecting a burst of shots, but had been expecting it to fire into the Officer from the left, and had expected it to be the muffled bang of their rifles, instead she heard the whirr of a mag weapon, followed by some kind of screech from the alien, and she saw it's rifle come flying past the statue. Then she heard a loud crack, followed by a sickening crunch.

Alice was stunned, what had just happened. She cautiously got out of cover, turning to Roman "Plant the X-4" then put a hand to her ear-piece "Hax?"

"Yeah" he replied

"Call Firebrand. And check on Sean"

"Aye"

She was walking slowly, keeping her rifle up, moving to get vision around the corner as quickly as possible while maintain distance from it. She could still hear those crunches from around the corner.

She got around, and saw something she never thought she'd see.

* * *

 **Harold slammed** the alien's head into the base of the statue one more time, before he heard a gasp of surprise, and looked up to see a woman, with a rifle in her hand, long brown hair tied back in a ponytail. He did a quick up and down to establish who she was, and noticed a symbol on her left breast. He recognised that logo. He released the aliens head, dropped the pipe onto the body, and moved towards the woman.

* * *

 **Alice couldn't** believe her eyes. There was a man, about average height, black hair cut short, but not styled, like someone had just used a knife to cut it themselves, he was wearing only a red t-shirt and black trousers, and she could see the insane amount of muscle the man had, and also the scars, she also noticed a large spot on his side, darker red than the rest of his shirt, too localized to be splatter. He slammed the Officers head into the statue, and looked up at her, she was too stunned to move. He looked up at her, grunted, and dropped a pipe that he'd been holding, then began slowly walking towards her. Still she couldn't move, she had no idea why she was so afraid of this, they were the same height, and she was holding a gun, and had 3 armed soldiers just a couple dozen feet away, and yet, she had a feeling that if they fired at him, he could rip them apart with no problem. He was right in front of her now, looking straight into her eyes. Then his gaze went down. She'd normally slap someone immediately if they did that, but she still couldn't move. "Name" the man said. The word croaked out like he hadn't spoken for years.

"Uh-Uh-" Alice stammered

"Name" the man repeated, more sternly this time.

"My name?"

The man looked back up into her eyes "No. Name!" this time she noticed that he was pointing at her left breast, she was very confused for a second before she remembered the logo on her chest

"Oh. XCOM" she said

The man seemed to stiffen at that "X-COM?"

"Yes, XCOM. I'm-"

"X-COM. Commander. Bradford. Shen. Vahlen" the man said the words as if he was just remembering the words

"You... You know us?"

The man suddenly stumbled backwards, and hand going to his head, and he began growling and hissing, seemingly at himself

"Hey!" a voice came from behind her, and she recognised the voice of William "Leg's is fine, he took a graze to the shoulder. Firebrand's coming in-" William stopped as he saw the man, hunched over, holding his head and growling "Whose your friend?"

Suddenly the man lunged forward. He moved with incredible speed, crossing the 20 meters between them in the blink of an eye, the man was right in front of William, and picked him, a hand either side of him, one on each arm "Psycho! Vampire! Boomer! Whirr! Crash! Scotch! Shield! SMOKES!" at the last word the man dropped William, who landed heavily on his ass, screamed out a curse, and collapsed onto his face, a small splash of red came out as he struck the ground, probably breaking his nose from the impact with the ground

"Who the hell is this guy?" William asked as he got back up, and looked at the massive man, collapsed on the ground, that had picked him up with no effort.

"I don't know" Alice replied "But those words sounded familiar. And he mentioned Shen, Bradford and the Commander"

"X-COM" came a voice from the side, and Alice turned to see Roman coming over. He had a thick German accent. "old X-COM" emphasising the 'Old'

"This" he said, motioning towards the man, "Is Harold 'Boomer' Sanders, one of the soldiers of the original X-COM, 20 years ago. We have to get him to the Commander"

"Very well" Alice said. She didn't doubt Roman for a second. If he said that's what was going on, then that's what was happening "We need to get him on the Skyranger"

Alice turned to Roman, and tell me everything you know about this, Harold character.

* * *

 **Series 2 is here. This time I'm going to have the battle a lot more imaginationry (I don't think that's a word, but whatever). So I'll be a bit less turn-based, hopefully easier to follow in real-time. We got a new crew, and new enemies, and some familiar faces. Hope you enjoy this New Journey (Coming up with a title was annoyingly difficult)**


	2. Chapter 2: Meetings

**Harold awoke,** and immediately the hunt-pain returned. What had happened? Had he fallen asleep? No, that isn't possible, he hadn't slept in a long time, never even felt the need for in what must have been years. No, he hadn't gone to sleep. Had he been knocked out? He did a check, he had a bad injury on his side, but his immune system was destroying any foreign bacteria, and was already in the process of healing it, he couldn't find any leakage in the blood of his brain, nor any other sign of injury in his head, although he did briefly note the blood flow to his nose, broken, maybe one of the aliens had hit him in the nose and he hadn't noticed, but that was neither here nor there, why had he passed out? There was nothing in his body that would give any reason for him to do so. He tried to open his eyes, and found that he still couldn't see. He wasn't blind, his body would have a reaction to it, and there was nothing different in his eyes. He tried to move the rest of body, and found he could only move about a centimetre before it was stopped by something. Something was blocking his vision, and he was restrained. He'd been captured then. As he realized this, the Hunt-pain receded, and the combat stimulants increased in his blood stream, his muscled bunched in anticipation, his heart-rate increased, his pupils dilated, and his non-vital systems decreased, preparing his body even further for combat. With a quick heave he thrust his arms up, the bonds held, but he could feel it weaken, and he repeated the action. On the fourth heave, his arms sprung free. He moved his hands to his head, and tore the material from his face. Light flooded his eyes, briefly making him squint before his eyes adjusted. While his eyes adjusted, he tore the restraint from his head and legs. Freeing himself.

He sat up, and looked around. He was in a small room, bare metal walls, floor, and ceiling, there was nothing else in the room aside from the metal table he'd been strapped to. He got up, and turned, and saw that, behind him was a floor to ceiling mirror. Knowing it would take him hours, and serious damage to him, to break through any of the other walls, he moved the table to the side, moved to the other side of the room, and charged at the mirror.

Just as he was about to strike the mirror, he noticed a slight red sheen over it, and realized too late that it had some kind of force-field around it. He struck the barrier and rebounded, skidding back across the floor, before coming to rest just before he hit the far wall, his muscled convulsing from an electric discharge. The hunt-pain returned as he realized he wouldn't be fighting anything any time soon. He tried to grit his teeth against it, but do to the convulsions, he ended up biting off the tip of his tounge, there was a wash of blood in his mouth, with the coppery, metallic taste filling his mouth. He heard a hissing, and managed to force his neck to turn and look at the side of the ceiling, to see a greenish gas coming out. They were gassing him.

His head swam as the gas filled his lungs, the blood from his tounge slowed as the stims helped to block the injury, but the stims couldn't help with the gas, and was eventually thrown into unconsciousness.

* * *

 **The Commander** saw Harold run into field, and winced as he saw him get launched back, and noticed the wash of red, presumably he'd bitten off his tounge. He gave the order and the chamber was flushed with Chloroform gas to knock him out, Shen moved in to treat his bitten tounge, and restrain him again, hopeful with stronger restraints this time. He knew he was being overly-cautious, but after what happened with Ryo, he was willing to do so. He had no way of knowing how Harold would react if he saw him, what he was capable of now, or if he was even still sane. The bio-scans they had done showed that he was using his psionic abilities to keep the combat stimulants they'd made back at X-COM permanently affecting his body. He'd somehow discovered how to prevent his body from absorbing the chemicals. Tygan hadn't been able to get any scans of his brain, all he got was a big purple blob on the inside of the skull, and had informed him that they had no way of knowing what kind of effect 20 years of permanent stimulants would affect a mind. He'd heard the reports from the soldiers on the ground, so he knew there must be something of the old Harold left, since he recognised the XCOM logo.

"Commader" came a voice from behind him. The Comander turned to see Alice standing there. He knew her, a good woman, a good leader.

"Yes. How can I help you?" He asked, as a panel in the wall of Harold's cell slid open, and Shen, wearing a gas mask, moved inside.

Alice looked behind him at Shen getting Harold back onto the table "Can I ask what it Is that you're planning on doing with him?"

She'd been the first one to see Harold, and had been against putting him in there, as she reasoned that he hadn't attacked them, but had attacked the ADVENT officer on sight. The Commander sighed "Well, I'd rather be on the side of caution. We're going to have to keep him in there, sedated, until we can find a way to make sure he wont rampage through the Avenger" he scratched the back of his head, on the scar where Tygan had removed the chip from his skull, a nervous tick he had unconsciously picked up.

"How are we going to know that if he's sedated?"

"I don't know"

"Then we're just going to keep him in there?"

"For now"

"But then what's the point of having him here? We need to figure out what he knows. If he really has been fighting ADVENT directly for 20 years he could know so much about their operation"

The Commander sighed again and rubbed his eyes, he'd barely slept since he'd been recovered. Commanding X-COM had been difficult enough, but commanding XCOM was something entirely different. "I don't know. But it's too dangerous. We have no idea how his mind has reacted to the stimulants, or what he is capable of, you say he killed that Officer with his bare hands, and it's head was little more than goo. So imagine what he could do if he got his hands on one of our swords, or a shotgun. No, it's too dangerous, I'd rather have us lose 1 potential soldier, than risk losing the entire Avenger"

"Sir. I know you were wounded by what Ryo did" Alice had earned her nickname 'Archive' for a reason, while others sat in groups and talked, played games, or worked out, she sat in her room and read through reports, this had earned her the position of the Commander's second in command, since she knew almost everything that had happened before the fall, and most things that had happened since, despite being only 28 herself. "But you need to trust again"

The Commander chuckled "You sound like a psychologist. All that reading must be paying off"

"Indeed" Alice replied "But don't chance the subject"

"Ah, foiled again" The Commander laughed "Your advice is invaluable to me Alice. But, I cannot allow Harold to roam the place as he see's fit. However, I will take some of your advice. I'll give Harold one more chance, we won't sedate him, and won't restrain him this time. If he doesn't react violently, we will go from there and see what we can do"

"Thank you Commander"

"No" The Commander said "Thank you Alice"

"What for?"

"For your advice. You are right. Harold was a great soldier, and could be even stronger now. He could be invaluable" he rubbed his eyes again, he felt like he was about to fall asleep where he stood

"Commander, when was the last time you slept"

The Commander smiled "I can sleep when I'm dead. But, again, you are right. We have some time. I should get some sleep. Cover for me?"

Alice smiled back "Of course"

* * *

 **Aya ducked** back behind the wall, taking the knife from her boot, and holding it ready in a reverse grip, better for stabbing motions, and got ready. The ADVENT Trooper rounded the corner, and Aya drove the knife into it's neck, while putting a hand over it's mouth to prevent it making noise, and pulling it behind the wall with her. She ripped off the Troopers helmet, keeping her hand over it's mouth, and pulled the knife from it's neck, before driving it back into it's head, piercing it's brain and killing it. She wiped the knife on the aliens armour before sheathing it back into her boot. Checked that she didn't have any blood on her, and got back up, walking around the wall as if nothing had happened. She had learned a while ago that pretending that you belonged would invite others to believe it. It worked. Nobody bat an eye at the woman wearing a thick cloak with the hood pulled up to cover her face, it helped that it was raining, so many people looked similar to her. Only an ADVENT soldier would recognize her, and she had just disposed of the only one of in the area. So proceeded inside the store, and took down the hood. Even if the security camera got a look at her face, it would take them at least 10 minutes to get to the store, and by then, she'd be long gone. She checked the store, making sure there was nobody else inside, while making it seem like she was trying to find something.

"Looking for something?" the Shopkeeper called. He was a large man with greying hair and a handlebar moustache.

"Oh, yes" Aya replied, making her voice sound surprised, and approaching the man "I'm looking for, oh what's It called, it's kind of like-" she reached the counter, and whipped out a pistol "I am going to take some food and water. You will not press your alarm. I will be gone in 5 minutes, and you will never see me again" her voice in her usual monotone

The man put his hands up. The pistol had no ammunition in it of course, she had run out of that years ago, and had only once been challenged on the matter. They couldn't tell, and few shopkeepers would risk their lives over what 1 person can carry. She grabbed a bag, and, keeping one eye on the man, and with the pistol pointed at him, while she collected the food. She didn't pay attention to what food it was, just threw it in, she wasn't picky. She grabbed about a dozen bottles of water, and threw them in a second bag. "I apologise for the inconvenience" she said

The man didn't reply. Aya put the pistol back in her cloak, put up the hood, and went outside. Heading back to her 'home'. No doubt he'd be calling ADVENT, but there was almost over a million living in this city, and a woman, even one with a scar as obvious as hers, could easily blend back into the crowd if she knew what she was doing.

* * *

 **Aya climbed** down the ladder into the basement she'd set up base in, and set the bags down on the floor, she took out the pistol, and threw it onto a table. She took out the knife, and placed it down next to the pistol. She got a bottle of water from the bag, and had a drink, before putting the bottle down on the table as well. She sat down on a chair, the only other piece of furniture in the room, and looked at the finger on her left hand. That damn trooper had bitten it, hard, hard enough to draw blood. It stung, but she'd taken a lot worse in her time in X-COM. She looked around the room, it was the same as when she left it, dimly lit by the bare bulb hanging from the ceiling, the corners of the room still in shadow, a door on the far side of the room lead into the 'bedroom'. She checked her watch, 12:30. Past mid-night. And she'd have to move into the secure room before tomorrow. ADVENT would be searching the area, and she'd have to hide, she'd done this routine hundreds of times, and knew ADVENT's responses inside and out. The family that was letting her stay in their basement were Rebel sympathisers, and she didn't want to end up messing up their lives by her being stupid. She got out of the chair, and took the knife, gun, and supplies to the wall, and pressed the brick that slid out the hidden section, revealing a tiny area, about 5 feet square, meant to hide items, not people. It wasn't comfortable, but she had to make do. She put the bags in the back, and put the gun and knife in the bags, before she backed out of the 'room'. She went over to the 'bedroom'. Opening the door, and going inside. It was furnished just as much as the main area, with just 2 mattresses lying on the floor, one was occupied, as it always was.

She put 2 fingers on Maxim's neck. His pulse was light, like always, but it was still there. He'd woken up twice in 20 years. Each time, he had just screamed for a few seconds, then went back to this state, but every time he did that, ADVENT raided the place only an hour or 2 later. He was much the same as ever, although more aged then before, but she was as well, 20 years aged everyone. His hair was pure white, not from age, it hadn't been a gradual thing, the moment they'd appeared back at his apartment that day his hair had suddenly been pure white, like an albino. His eyes had changed as well, she gently peeled back his eyelid to check, and his eye was still the same as ever, but the iris was a purple colour now, again, it had changed the moment they had appeared at his apartment. He wasn't feverish, it wasn't an illness that made him like this, she had no idea what was doing it, but if she poured water into his mouth, he swallowed, and if she put food in his mouth he ate and swallowed as well. If she didn't know better she would think he was faking it. She picked him up, and carried him into the secret room. Then went back, and turned off all the lights, before going back in, and lying down next to him, pressing the button on the wall, and sealing the wall. She reached into the food bag, and took out the first thing her hand touched, opened the package and ate. Jerky. Not the worst thing she's ever grabbed out of the food bags. She ate it, then laid down and went to sleep, but not before she took the knife from the bag, and laid it down next to her.

* * *

 **William 'Hax'** Wright, sat at his computer, absently typing away on the computer in front of him. Shen had a strong encryption on her GREMLIN 'Rover', and William had developed a habit of trying to hack into it, it's how he spent his down time. He'd been at the Avenger for over 3 months now, and had only managed to successfully hack Rover twice, both times he had just had it follow Shen around and give her shocks from it's stun weaponry until it's firewalls ejected him. It was fun, kept his hacking skills up, and it really annoyed Shen. He'd also had his own GREMLIN 'NoClip' hacked back by Shen twice as well, which did the same thing to him. It had become something of a game between them, her defences on her GREMILIN were a lot better, but she clearly wasn't as skilled at forceful hacking as he was. It was a battle of offence (William), vs. defence (Shen). He liked the game. Nobody else would do any kind of non-physical game against him, he knew hundreds of ways to cheat in games, and couldn't find games fun unless he did so. But he'd met someone to match him in Shen. He had something new planned for when he managed to hack into Rover again.

"Hey, Will" Ashley's voice came from his door.

"Yeah" William called, still focused on his hacking.

Ashley opened the door, and came inside. The latest edition to XCOM. Ashley 'Ash' Ashlie was tall man, over 6 foot, his left eye was green, his right eye was blue, heterochromia, it was a strange thing, but people had it. William had felt weird for the first few weeks whenever he'd looked at Ashley's eyes, it had just felt strange. But now, it was just another quirk of XCOM life. He'd shown up strangely. He'd just walked up to the Avenger when it was landed, introduced himself as 'Ashley Ash Ashlie', whenever anyone asked about his name, he just said that his parents had a strange sense of humour. He was a good sniper, and a nice enough guy, but William didn't really get to know anyone on board aside from the one's he went on missions with, he was too busy hacking, and they'd only been on a couple missions together so far, so he hadn't had a chance to get to know him, but also wasn't really interested in doing so. He didn't really do the social.

"Just wanted to see if you wanted to come play some soccer on the roof" Ash said, he had quite a thick American accent, probably from near Texas or something, William didn't know much about America. William turned, and saw him holding a football.

"I don't really do football"

"Neither do I. What about soccer though"

William sighed "It's football. We invented it, so we name it" William continued talking before Ash could argue "But! I'm also not a sport guy in any way, and I'm busy trying to hack Rover, so, if you wouldn't mid" He motioned at the door.

"You're no fun" Ash replied, but he closed the door and left.

William went back to his computer. Bloody jocks trying to get him to do sports.

* * *

 **Roman closed** his diary "Not today" he said

"How can you always hear me coming?" Sean asked "Everyone else craps themselves when I come into the room behind them"

Roman got up, and turned to Sean "I have good ears" Sean was doing it almost daily. Whenever he wrote in his diary, Sean always tried to sneak a peak at what he was writing, and Roman always caught him.

"Why don't you let anyone look in there?"

"I like my privacy"

"Fine. See you in a few days"

Roman turned back around, and waited until he heard the door close before he opened his diary and continued writing.


	3. Chapter 3: Visiting Harold

**Sean sat** in his room on the Avenger, his left leg was opened, and he was fiddling with the wires, he'd taken a shot in it during the battle that they found that Harold guy, Shen had fixed it, but had apparently missed something, it had been acting a little strange, not enough for anyone else to notice, but it was reacting just a tiny bit slower than the other one, and he was checking for any loose wires. He could just go to Shen of course, but he'd rather be able to repair it himself, and didn't want to give Shen more work, she had a lot to do now that the Commander was back. He found a wire that was slightly loose, and he began taking open the casing to fix it. It was a strange sensation, to be taking apart your own leg, and not feeling pain from doing it. As he was closing the casing after readjusting the wire, he heard a knock on his door.

"Come in" Sean called, as he started closing up the rest of the plating on his leg

"Hi Legs" Alice's voice came from the doorway, and Sean looked up from his leg to see her standing in the doorway, wearing a dark blue T-Shirt and Black Trousers, and Trainers, he hair was out of the pony-tail she kept it in during missions, and hung behind her, it reached just below shoulder height. Sean meanwhile was wearing a dark green shirt and shorts, he never bothered with shoes anymore. "What're you doing there?" She asked

"There was a loose wire in the left leg" Sean explained as he finished closing the outer-casing on the leg "How can I help you?"

"It's the man we picked up on the last mission, Harold, I managed to convince the Commander to give him a chance at talking to us and-"

"And you want me to be the one to talk to him" Sean guessed

"Precisely. You do have a calming voice, I thought that it might help"

Sean smiled, they often commented on his voice, if he didn't have his legs, his nickname would probably involve his voice. "What would this entail?"

"Explaining what happened to X-COM, and what's been going on since"

"Surely you know more on that subject than I, as would the Commander"

"But, the Commander was part of the old X-COM, so we don't know how he'll react"

"Understandable. But why do you not do it?"

"Because he saw me the last mission. But he hasn't seen you"

Sean thought for a moment. He'd seen what the man had done to the Officer, he had taken his bare hands, and smashed the ADVENT soldier's head, helmet and all, into the statue, until the head more resembled a yellow-ish puddle on the side of the statue. If he freaked out, he doubted they could stop him before he suffered a similar fate. If it was anyone else, he'd decline, but he knew how strongly Alice felt about this, she had talked about to the Commander about it for days before she got her way, and he knew she wouldn't be coming to him if someone else could it, also, not that he'd tell anyone, but she was like a daughter to him. He knew the other's thought he was in his 40's, and he let them think that, but he was actually 57, so it was quite possible that she could be his daughter, in an age way anyway.

"Very well" Sean replied "Give me a few minutes to finish up"

"Thank you Sean" Alice said, she did look genuinely grateful.

"Of course. But, if I do get my head destroyed, I am going to haunt you"

* * *

 **Harold sat** in his prison cell, as that is what it was to him, that forcefield was all the way around the room, but most concentrated at the window. When he'd awoken a few hours ago, he found he was on the same bed as before, but was not strapped down this time, and there was a plate of food on the floor. He ate the food, not worried about any kind of poison, if it was poisoned, his Combat Stims would destroy it the moment it tried to enter his blood stream. The Hunt-Pain was constant, and he had spent the last few hours sitting on that bed and gritting his teeth. His instincts were yelling at him to get out and kill something to dull the Hunt-Pain, but he forced that down, it was incredibly difficult, and as time went on he found himself sliding off the bed before he realized what he was doing and he got back on. He was running out of willpower to resist it, a few more hours and he would have to break something. Whoever was holding in here had apparently figured out that tying him down hadn't helped, but they still hadn't done anything other than keep him locked in here, if they were torturers, this would be effective against most people, fear of the unknown, but, all it did was make him angrier, and if someone came inside, he was quite likely to just rip their arm off, just to get rid of the Hunt-Pain for a few minutes.

* * *

 **Sean stood** in the room, looking through the 2-way mirror, Alice had described his reaction before, and Harold was clearly a lot calmer than before, maybe because they hadn't tied him up this time, maybe because he knew the forcefield would knock him on his ass. Fixing that wire had sorted out his leg, and it no longer had that slight delay, which he was happy with, but now he was going to have to try and talk to that guy, and his heart was going nuts

"Thank you for doing this Sean" Alice said.

Sean turned and gave her a smile "As long as I do not lose any more limbs, I will be happy to do it"

Dr. Tygan was at one of the consoles, apparently Shen had set up a speaker in there when they had knocked him out, so that they could talk to him without having to actually go in, which Sean was grateful for, however, in order to use them, they'd have to deactivate the forcefield, which could mean that Harold could get out. Alice had a Taser in a holster, as did Tygan, but Sean himself had nothing.

"Whenever you're ready" Tygan said, motioning to the controls

Sean came over, and looked at the console, he didn't understand what half of the thing did, but he saw a microphone with a red button beneath it, and knew enough to know 'Press the button to activate the microphone'.

Sean pressed the button, and spoke into the Mic "Hello Harold"

* * *

 **Harold was** just about to break the bed he was sitting on, in the hopes that it would be enough to dull the Hunt-Pain when a voice came from nowhere "Hello Harold". It was quiet, and soft, and sounded gently. It sounds like a kindly granddad was Harold's first thought, though he didn't know where that came from. He looked around, trying to spot where the voice had come from, and the Hunt-Pain receded slightly at the prospect of having something to fight.

"I am Sean" the voice said "You are currently in the Avenger"

Harold didn't say anything, he had identified where the voice was coming from, the far corner of the room, though he couldn't see where it was from exactly.

"Can you confirm that you are Harold Sanders from the original X-COM operation?"

Sander's? He'd heard that before. He knew his name was Harold, but who was this Sanders? He recognized the name, but didn't know where from. X-COM? He'd heard that, it felt important. He looked around, trying to recall what It was, and noticed that there was no longer a red sheen over the glass wall anymore. He approached it.

* * *

 **"Can you** confirm that you are Harold Sanders from the original X-COM operation?" Sean asked. Though they had confirmed it from Alice's Archived photograph's of the survivors of the original, he figured he should at least test his memory, or see if he was lying. Harold looked around, he looked like he was thinking, then he turned, and looked straight at Sean. It was disconcerting, but there was no way Harold could see through that. Harold approached the glass, put his hands up against it, then brought them back, and slammed them into the glass. There was a muffled boom as he hit it, and crack's spider-webbed from the point of impact. Tygan drew out his Taser, and Alice put her hand to the holster.

* * *

 **He slammed** his hands into the glass, and the Mirror effect failed. He looked through the glass into a small room, with several panels scattered around it. There was a man behind one, a microphone in from of him, clearly the one that was speaking, he was and older man, next to him was a dark-skinned bald man, with a pistol-like device in his hand, on his other side was a woman, her hand at her hip. He had met that woman before. He pointed at her "X-COM", remembering the events before he had first passed out.

* * *

 **"X-COM" Harold** said, pointing directly at Alice. It seemed he could see through it after-all, there was a flashing red light on the panel, and Tygan said

"It's lost the mirrored effect, he can see us".

"X-COM" Harold repeated, pointing at Alice again.

"Yes" Sean said, using the Microphone, since he didn't know if Harold would be able to hear through it "We work for X-COM. Apparently so did you"

Harold looked down, looking like he was thinking. "Commander. Shen. Vahlen" He said eventually

"Do you want to see the Commander?" Sean asked

"Vampire. Psycho. Spray. Boomer"

Sean looked to Alice "The Code-names of Maxim Popov, Aya Haidar, Karl Wagner, and Harold Sander's. The only soldier's that survived the betrayal of Ryo 'Xeno' Goto. We don't know where they are"

Sean turned back to the microphone "Do you know where they are?"

Harold didn't even seem to be hearing him, he just kept muttering names, which Sean had no idea what they meant. He turned to Alice "I don't think he's all there"

* * *

 **Memories came** flooding back to Harold, he was remembering the last moments of that day, before he flooded himself with the Stimulants. The memories raced through so fast he almost didn't know what he was seeing. But one thing stuck out at him, a man, who looked a bit like him, on the balcony above him, his left side burned and scarred, and mostly replaced with robotic parts. He remember the code name first, Smokes. Then he remembered his actual name Joe Sanders. Then he remembered what the name Sander's was. His own last name, and he slammed his fists into the glass in front of him again, using all his strength, the glass shattered, raining down in a razor-sharp hail that you'd have to be mad to run through.

* * *

 **Harold stopped** his muttering, and slammed his hands into the glass again, and it shattered. Without even a pause, Harold launched himself through the hail of glass, there was a splash of red as he was lacerated by the hail of glass. Just as he jumped out of the hail, he was struck in the chest by something, and Sean turned to see Tygan had fired the Taser. Harold twitched, but kept coming forward, slowly, but he still kept coming. He got 2 more steps before he was struck by a second Taser. This second Taser overwhelmed him, and Harold collapsed to the ground, crunching into some remnants of glass.

"That could have gone better" Sean said

"Could have gone a lot worse" Tygan replied.

"The Commander was right. He was too unstable, we should have just left him sedated.

"We had to at least try" Sean replied "He might have known where the other survivor's were. We know he knew their names. So he does remember things. But it seems like seeing you triggered something"

"I shouldn't have been here. Someone else should have done it"

"Hindsight is 20/20" Sean replied, laying a reassuring hand on Alice's shoulder "We can keep him sedated until we can be sure"

Alice laughed "That was exactly what the Commander suggested"

"But at least we tried"

"I guess"

"Come on. Let's go get a drink. I heard Ash has got his hands on some new drinks"

"I'd still like to know where he get's that from"

"And I'd like to know what Roman writes in his diary. There are some thing's we'll never know"

* * *

 **Aya woke** up in the tiny room, and stayed still. She pressed her ear to the wall and listened, nothing. She grabbed the dagger, and pressed the button to open the wall. Cautiously, she poked out, and searched the room. Nothing appeared out of place, though she noticed the dust around the table had been moved. Someone had been down here, and had looked around. She went over to the 'Bedroom' and peeked in. The same as she'd left it. She went back to the hidden room, and brought out the bags, then pulled Maxim back out as well. She took him back into the 'Bedroom', and placed him back on the mattress. She was about to head back into the when she heard a noise, and she turned to see Maxim bolt up to a sitting position. Aya was about to get the bags and prepare to move out, when, instead of screaming, Maxim spoke '3 Days. Blood Way. 4 AM'. After saying that, he fell back to his usual position as if nothing had happened. Aya was a bit taken aback that he'd actually spoken, but she recovered quickly, and headed to the ladder to figure out where this 'Blood Way' was.

* * *

 **William cracked** Rover's firewall, and took control of the GREMLIN. "Yes!" William allowed himself a brief celebration, before he started programing in his new orders. Normally, he took manual control, but he wanted to do something a bit more sneaky this time, if things went right, Shen wouldn't even notice for a few days that he'd even done the hack. He set it to record constantly, send all it's recordings to him, and never shut down, he also adjusted some things, so it would fly slightly crookedly, and a bit slower, so she'd think it was broken a bit. He also set up a few other sneaky things that she wouldn't find out for a while. He also, sneakily, set it to use it's own firewall to block his own. So any time Shen attempted to break into NoClip, she'd actually be trying to hack ROVER. He thought that was pretty clever, it took him 3 days to figure out how to do that. He was probably going to give it away next time he saw Shen, as he knew he'd have the biggest shit-eating grin ever, but it would be difficult to de-hack what he just did, he spent a lot of time working on it, so even if she did find it, she'd basically have to go into it and manually reset it's code. This was fun.

* * *

 **I've only been following the 5 soldiers (And Harold Aya and Maxim), because, unfortunately, the loading screens for XCOM take ages, and it's really annoying, so I've only actually gotten around to doing the first mission. Although I will hopefully be getting a new computer in a few days (potentially), which will, hopefully, speed up the damn loading screens and the lag. The missions will be a bit less turn-like in the description, since I think XCOM 2 allows for it more with the skills of the soldiers. Also, just so no-one get's confused, I have a few mods on, so I'll have leader training at some point, and have the 7 Long War classes (Shinobi, Ranger, Assault, Gunner, Grenadier, Sharpshooter, and Specialist). The Character's will also be a bit deeper, and actually have some stuff we find out about them as time goes on, rather than the first one, where I just gave them personalities, I actually gave them backstories, and the XCOM 2 world actually let's them be involved. Anyway, I'm rambling. So, thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoy this story.**


	4. Chapter 4: Blood Way

**Sorry this one is quite a bit later than normal. I got a new computer, and had to re-install XCOM 2, re-make the people, and play a few missions to get to the point I was at. Thankfully though, this is a proper desktop gaming computer, so the game runs much better, no waiting 20 minutes per loading screen, and I'm hyped to continue this with the people. So the next parts should be coming out quicker now.**

* * *

 **Blood Way.** Maxim had woken and said that location, and 3 days. Aya had searched for any mention of that place for 2 days, and she eventually found it. She was wearing some ADVENT armour she had taken, she had cleaned the orange blood off first, and had gotten her way into one of the ADVENT HQ'S. Thankfully the armour belonged to an Officer, so all she had to do was look at anyone who questioned her presence, and they backed off, the armour was a bit too big for her, but that also worked in her advantage, as it allowed her to fit into it, without showing off her less masculine figure. She hadn't seen any female ADVENT soldiers, so the other's might question seeing one. But she got in with no interruption, and made her way to the planning room. She had come into many of these before, trying to figure out what the aliens were up to, after 20 years, she had figures out some of the basic's of the language, and could figure out the general gist of what the soldiers were saying, and what any writing's said, she could even bark at them and say basic things, usually the alien's version of 'Fuck off, I'm busy', and it worked, most of the time. This was one of the times it did work. She got into the planning room, which was empty, and she began looking through some files. It was difficult to see through the mask, as it didn't quite fit her properly, and she couldn't make head nor tails of how it worked anyway, but she didn't take it off, since one of the soldiers could walk through the door, and it would look much more suspicious if she had her helmet off. She searched through the stack, and eventually found 1 mention of 'Blood Way'. She didn't stop to read the file, but merely slipped it into the armour on her back, there was some slack, so it fit through just fine. She began walking out, but, just as she was about to open the door, it opened in front of her. She react5ed quickly, and immediately stood up straight, ready to either bark at them to let her pass, or salute if it was another Officer. It was the latter. Standing in front of her was an Officer, he was slightly taller than her, and there was something different about it's armour, it seemed thicker, tougher, as if he was some kind of Elite, or Higher ranked, but that didn't exist right, they just went to officer then the other aliens, at least what she'd seen. But behind the Officer, she saw 2 other Soldiers, their armour was sleek, form fitting, it looked like it wouldn't stand up to a hard slap, but she knew from experience that it was tougher even than the Officer's armour, their armour was black, with red lines going around it, the face plate was also black, with a red outline. She knew these soldiers, Stun Lancer was what the civilians called them. They each had a rifle mag-locked to their hip, and a sword-like device on their back. Officially their purpose is crow-control, equipped with non-lethal weaponry, they would be the one's that would break up riots, but they had long-since been devoted to other means. They were extremely loyal, even more so that the other troops, they cared nothing for their own safety, and would charge into a hail of fire to get their target, they were also very fast and agile, and surprisingly strong for their lithe figures. They made ideal Bodyguards. They were know used as either Bodyguards for high ranking officials, or deployed on small strike forces, much like X-COM used to do. If they were here, shit was about to hit the fan. She quickly gave a salute as the 3 came in, hoping they'd merely ignore here. They didn't. The Officer turned to her, and barked in the alien language. She still didn't understand the language entirely, but the general gist was "What are you doing here!?". She responded back "Making sure plans were correct", before adding a quick "Sir"

The Officer looked her over, she was really glad she had that file down her back know, no way he'd let her leave with it if she was carrying it. If it had just been the Officer, she could have just round-housed him to the face, and walked out, but she didn't like her chances against 2 Stun Lancers in a confined space, she was nothing if not logical. The Officer finished scrutinizing her, and looked straight in her face, he took a small step forward, they were basically touching helmets. After a few seconds, of Aya staying stock still while he breathed in her face, he took a step back and said "Go gather your unit, we're moving out in an hour".

She could have asked where to, but she would have been questioned further, so she merely nodded, saluted, and left. As she went out, she noticed something on the Officer's shoulder plate, it was a small symbol, and it took her a moment to recognize it, it was the old XCOM logo, but it had an alien head, made out of human skulls on top of it. She had never seen that before, but she devoted it to memory as she stepped out, as it seemed like it would be important.

The rest of her journey was uneventful, she got within a few blocks of her 'home', and stripped off the armour, dumping it in an alleyway, then made her way back, with the envelope now under her cloak.

She climbed down the ladder, and sat down, then took out the folder. There was a map, showing an area, which Aya recognised as a few miles out of the city. There was an area highlighted in a red circle. At the top of the file was written 'Operation Blood Way'. She scanned the rest of the article, and realized why Maxim has told her about it, She quickly tucked it back under the cloak, went into the 'bedroom', picked up Maxim, threw him over her shoulder, and made her way out. The Officer had said there were moving out in an hour, and she couldn't ride a bike with Maxim like this, and taking a car would be too difficult, and she'd get stuck in the traffic anyway. She had to run it. Thankfully, she was built for endurance. But she'd have to get out of the city first. A woman in a cloak, running past with an unconscious man would be too suspicious, if she walked, she could say her boyfriend was drunk, and she was taking him home. She'd done that before when she had to move to a different location with Maxim. Hopefully, this would be the last time.

* * *

 **Alice sat** in the Sky Ranger, she couldn't believe what was happening. ADVENT had discovered the location of one of the Resistance Havens, and had descended in force, they weren't even just targeting the soldiers either, from the reports she'd gotten, they were trying to get to the civilians that were evacuating. There was 4 of them, most of them, the normal Nerd Brigade. There was herself, Sean, William, but, instead of Roman, the commander had advised her to bring Ash, reasoning, quite rightly that his sniper rifle would be more useful than explosives in a defensive mission. Their goal here was to set down between the majority of the ADVENT forces, and the Evacuation, and just defend that area until the civilians got out, then evac, and Roman flinging around grenades would destroy their own cover as well. William wouldn't be as useful, since there wasn't going to be anything for him to hack, but apparently he'd done something stupid, and Shen wasn't happy, she didn't know the details, but something about hacking Rov-R, so it was best to get him away from the Avenger.

The Sky Ranger stopped, and the back opened, they got up, and slid down the ropes. The area was lightly forested, and there was a drop a little away, there was also a damaged car over to her right. She looked around, and saw 2 others were already there, they had armour and weapons, she assumed these were resistance fighters. There was a woman, with dark skin, and black hair, cut short, military style. The other was a man, but his armour looked strange, almost burned, like he'd run through a fire while wearing it. He wore an old-fashioned Gas Mask, which had a tinted visor, so she couldn't see his face, he also had a big helmet on, all in all, she couldn't see any bit of skin on him. She turned to the woman "I'm Archive, we're with XCOM"

The woman nodded "I'm Stacy" she pointed to the man next to her "We don't know his real name, we just call him Pyro"

The man grunted something "He doesn't talk" Stacy said

"Alright. Form up in a defensive position. Ash, take that tree. Everyone else, form up around him, we need to be able to react quickly whichever side they come from"

The all moved into position, Ash was furthest back, and had a pretty good view, the other's formed up in a semi-circle around him. The evacuation was behind them, and they would be able to intercept anyone that tried to get around them. Alice, William, and Stacy were on the left side. Sean and 'Pyro' were on the right.

"Flare" William called. Alice looked over, and sure enough, just a bit ahead was a red flare, signalling to the ADVENT ship where to drop off it's troops, those would drop only a few seconds before they arrived. Those on the left trained their guns at the area. Sean and Pyro stayed on the other side, to prevent any flanks. The troop ship flew overhead, they didn't bother shooting at it, they'd need a rocket launcher to damage it, it came to a near stop, and a group of 3 Troopers dropped, and they dropped hard. One didn't even make it to the ground, as the muted bang of Ash's sniper rifle struck it just as it dropped from the ship, and it just landed on it's face. The other's made it to the ground, but then suffered a hail of bullets from 3 soldiers. One was killed just as it landed, the other took a shot to the leg, releasing a spray of orange blood, it didn't get more than 2 steps, before it was finished off by a spray of shots to the back, from the Resistance fighter Stacy, who was firing on full auto while the other's used burst

"Nice one. Reload and reform" Alice said, moving back to the old position, and putting in a fresh clip.

"Sectoid" Sean called from the other side, there was the soft bang of the sniper rifle, but the Trooper accompanying the Sectoid jumped to the left and avoided the shot. It didn't get to enjoy it's escape for long though, because it jumped towards Pyro, who opened fire with his rifle, the Trooper was thrown backwards, and Alice could smell burning, and saw that there was no blood, and there was a small fire on the ground behind the Trooper, apparently Pyro used Incendiary ammunition. As Pyro had unloaded his shots, Alice had lined up her shots with the Sectoid, and it stumbled backwards a step as a bullet struck it's arm. it also didn't get to enjoy it's survival for long. It popped it's head over the rock it had gotten behind, and then a spray of yellowish blood gushed from it's forehead, and it slumped to the side. A flare dropped down a few feet to the side, and they re-formed to protect from that side. The airship flew overhead, and an Officer and 2 Troopers dropped down. The Officer was struck before he even dropped, and just fell out, Ash was on point today. The other's dropped down directly behind a tree, so the other's didn't get a shot, until a grenade flew over behind the tree, and detonated, a body slumped out, burning, and the tree ignited, that guy really liked fire. While that was going on, Alice saw a head poke up from the edge further off, and Alice pumped a shot into it, the Trooper fell backwards, but another one jumped up, and ran for cover. A GREMLIN flew over, and there was a loud crack of electricity, and the Trooper that had been behind the burning tree fell out, twitching. The final Trooper poked it's head around the tree to take a shot, but it had forgotten about Sean. Sean hadn't been firing, and with his usual noiseless movement, had gone completely unnoticed, right up until he drop-kicked the Trooper. There was a loud crack, as it's ribs were shattered by the force of the robotic legs, and it flew backwards off the cliff, into a trailer, where it slid down, if not dead, then certainly not getting up any time soon.

"What's with all the damn flares" Ash called, as he turned to see ne drop down right behind him. 3 Troopers dropped out of the transport, and right into the waiting crossfire. 2 of them were destroyed just as they landed, and one almost made it to cover, but Ash hip-fired his sniper rifle, it was so close to him, he practically had the muzzle pressed into it's chest. It's lungs were blown out of it's back as the shot ripped through it.

"Reform and reload" Alice called again. They were going through ammo fast, she only had 2 full clips left. Thankfully, the Evacuation was nearing completion, so they wouldn't have to hold out for much longer. "Flare left" she called as another one dropped down. They all aimed towards it, and again, an Officer and 2 Troopers dropped out of it, and were summarily destroyed by the hail of shots from 5 rifles and a sniper.

"Left" Sean called out, and they swivelled to aim at that side again. They took aim, and an Officer and 2 Troopers dropped out, The Officer and 1 of the troopers were killed outright, but the other Trooper escaped unharmed and unnoticed. It was behind a rock, aiming up a shot at Stacy, when a knife was jammed up through it's Jaw. Standing where the Trooper had been was a woman, she had black hair, which was short, but cut crudely, like she was cutting it with a knife, there was a thick grey cloak on the ground behind her, and she was wearing just a t-shirt and trousers, along with boots. She had a knife in her hand, which she had just yanked out of the Troopers skull, she put the knife in an ankle sheath, and picked up the Troopers gun. She looked at the assembled soldiers looking at her, she was about to say something, when she saw 2 Flares drop down, one at the back, and one to their left, so instead she just said "Flares".

They all kicked back into action, going back to what they were doing before, and turned their guns to the flares that dropped down. 2 Troopers dropped down behind them, and they were destroyed by Ash, Pyro, William, and the new girl. The aliens resembled just a pile of meat more than living creatures. From the side, and Officer and 2 Stun Lancer's dropped. The Officer was killed by combined fire from Alice and Stacy, Sean moved to try and get a shot on one of the Stun Lancers, but the Soldiers dodged around the shots, leaving Sean stunned, and he took a single shot to the chest. Sean fell backwards, clutching at the wound in his chest. Ash turned and pumped a shot into the Lancer that shot Sean, it tried to dodge it, but he nailed the creature right in the chest, however, it didn't go down, it moved backwards with the shot, and absorbed some of the impact, and was recovering just as a GREMLIN appeared above it, and a shock of electricity fried it inside of it's armour. Alice looked up from her cover, looking for the second one, she saw it, but too late, it had whipped out the Sword-like-device it had on it's back, and thrust it in a stabbing motion, but the attack never connected, as a woman flashed out of no-where, and blocked the blade away with a small knife. The Stun Lancer barked something in the language they spoke, and sung at the woman, she ducked under it, and brought her knife around to slash the alien, but it rolled away from the slash, it got up from it's evasion, and attempted to stab at her with it's stun weapon again, but the woman got past the soldier's guard, getting too close for it to use the sword effectively, and drove her knife into the alien's faceplate, shattering it, and driving the knife into the alien's face, and driving it to the ground, where she yanked the knife back out, then stabbed it into it's neck. Orange blood was spraying everywhere. The woman stood up, breathing hard, and turned to Alice. "Where's your evac?"

Alice would normally have questioned this woman, but was too shocked by what had just happened, and she though she recognised the woman's face, but she couldn't remember where from, so she pointed over to an area just behind where Ash was positioned, it was a slight clearing in the tree's, that allowed the Sky Ranger to drop it's ropes properly, so they wouldn't be climbing through tree's. The woman nodded "Wait for me" she then dropped the rifle she'd taken from the Trooper, retrieved her knife from the Lancer's neck, and ran off.

* * *

 **"Who's your** girlfriend" a voice said from behind her. Alice turned to see William standing there, his GREMLIN, NO-CLIP, floating behind him.

"No idea. But she asked me to wait for her before Evac"

"And are we?"

Alice nodded, "She helped us out. We'll wait as long as we can, get everyone on the Sky Ranger. If more ADVENT shows up, we'll go. But we can give her a few minutes"

"Alrighty then"

* * *

 **"Transports coming"** Firebrand says "We got about 20 seconds before they start dropping off ADVENT"

Alice was looking out of the back of the Sky Ranger "Give her 10 more seconds" she had a feeling, she didn't know why, but she felt that the woman was important.

8 seconds later, the woman came running out of the forest, she had a body slung over her shoulder, but she was running at an amazing pace, she looked like she could give Usain Bolt a run for his money, and she was carrying someone on her shoulder, and had also duelled with a Stun Lancer only a few minutes early, she had endurance as well. The woman ran up, and grabbed onto the rope with her free arm.

"She's on" Alice called, and the rope started pulling up into the Sky Ranger, as it was nearly all pulled up, the woman poked up over the edge, and slung the body she'd been carrying into the ship. Alice pulled the body in, then gave the woman a hand up.

"Who are you?" Alice asked as the doors started closing behind them.

"Aya. Aya Haidar" the woman replied, and she nodded to the man she'd been carrying "and that, is Maxim Popov"

Alice remembered where she'd seen the woman's face before, though she had aged a bit since the picture she'd seen had been taken, 20 years of aging to be exact. "Aya Haidar, and Maxim Popov, of the old X-COM? Codenames Psycho and Vampire?"

"I prefer Valkyrie now" Aya replied


	5. Chapter 5: Nerds and Badasses

**"Any ideas?"** The Commander asked Doctor Tygan. They were in the research bay on the avenger, Maxim was in an MRI scanner, and Tygan was looking at the results.

"Unfortunately, we know very little about the way psionic's work, and-" he turned the screen so the Commander could see, and he saw that, instead of the usual cross-sections of the brain that you're supposed to see, all that he could see was a big purple blob in the general shape of the brain, he'd seen that when Tygan showed him the scans of Harold, but it was different. Harold's just looked like a purple field around the inside of his skull, but for Maxim, although it looked similar, it was slightly different, as the scan tried to get further in, the purple got brighter and brighter, then faded as it went back out, but everywhere it completely blocked the view of the brain, they showed that the purple block faded out an inch or 2 after his skin "-Maxim's seem different. Harold's is like a purposefully made block, Maxim's just looks like it's radiating out of his head"

"Any idea's how to fix it?"

"As I said, we know very little. At a guess, I would assume that something happened, and his psionic's overwhelmed his mind, and put him into this state. If this is indeed what happened, then getting him conscious would be a simple matter of creating a conduit of some kind, through which the power's could bleed out of without damaging him"

"So do it. Maxim knows a lot about Psionic's, and if what Aya has told us is true, he became a truly powerful psionic user"

"Unfortunately Commander, I haven't the slightest clue how to go about doing that. In theory, it's simple, but, we don't know what kind of materials or machinery that would take, and until I know that, Shen cannot make it"

"So we need to know more about Psionics?"

"Yes"

"You're working on the Magnetic weapons right now aren't you?"

"Yes Commander"

"How much longer should that take?"

"With the current resources we have, and with myself and the others working 'round the clock. I'd say, 7, maybe 8 days"

"We should prioritize getting our current soldiers sufficiently equipped before we go for the potential of getting 1 extra soldier. Finish up the weapons first"

"Yes Commander. I will have Maxim set up in our temporary med-bay until Shen finishes with the Advanced Warfare Centre, then we'll treat him like we would anyone in a coma"

"That sounds good. Inform me when you have finished with the weapons"

"Of course Commander"

The Commander walked back out of the Research bay, and began climbing up the ladder to get back to Mission Control. The one downside of the Avenger over their old base, was that they didn't have elevator's in this one. But he did also need to work off 20 years of atrophy, so, all in all... He still wanted elevators.

He reached the top of the ladder, opened the hatch, and climbed out.

"Hello Commander" He turned to see Alice standing there. Her hair was loose down her back, and she wore her usual dark blue T-shirt and black trousers, but something was different, she was wearing glasses.

"When did you get glasses?"

"I lost my contacts"

The Commander chuckled at that

"What?"

"You just look so cute with glasses"

"What?"

"All you need is freckles, and-" The Commander had an idea "Wait here, I'll be right back" He ran off, going up the staircase to his quarters

Alice waited where she was, did the Commander just call her cute?

After a few seconds, he came back down, he had something in his hands, which he quickly hid behind his back "Close your eyes, I have a surprise"

Alice sighed, but closed her eyes. She felt him put something on her head. "Open your eyes"

She opened her eyes, and the Commander was holding a mirror in front of her. She looked into the mirror, and saw that the Commander had put a cap on her head. It was dark blue, and had the symbol of XCOM on the front of it. And she had to admit, she did look kind of cute. All she needed was freckles and she would be the perfect image of the geek girl at school.

"Keep it, it suits you" The Commander said, as he lowered the mirror, he had such a giddy smile on his face

"Sometimes, you seem like the most mature man in the world, leading an organization to re-take the world... Other times you seem like a giddy 13-year-old" Alice smiled

"I know. It's fun" he then skipped away towards Central. The Commander was a strange man. If she hadn't know that he'd always been like that, she'd have thought he'd taken some brain damage from all that time in ADVENT capture. Maybe he had, but he seemed fine with it. Alice chuckled, and headed back to her room.

Along the way, she passed by the training room, and she saw Aya there. Aya was wearing a red T-shirt and black trousers, her hair had been cut, and properly, it was just cut short though, no styling for Psych- Valkyrie, Alice reminded herself. Aya didn't want to be Psycho anymore, she was Valkyrie now, and she had to admit, the name fit her, she certainly looked like a Valkyrie from Norse mythology. Especially in the training room. She'd read about her insane speed, which had never been explained, and now she was seeing it. There were 2 other's in the room with Aya, sparring with her. Roman was about the same height as Aya, only an inch or 2 shorter, and he was broader than Aya. Roman was all muscle, and bulky, he was easily the strongest active person on the Avenger physically, but Harold would probably beat him easily since his muscles are always working at maximum efficiency. He was duelling with Aya, both of them were using a stun-baton, so they'd get injured, but nothing that a good sleep wouldn't fix. While Aya was moving around, dodging any of Roman's attacks, then lashing out with her own, Roman stood stock still, only pivoting on the spot to stop her getting around him, and parrying her attacks with his own baton. If it was anyone else, Alice would say that she'd get tired, and Roman would eventually overpower her, because he was conserving energy, but Aya never seemed to get tired, she could tell they'd been sparring for at least a few minutes now, but Aya didn't even seem to be sweating yet. In fact, it seemed to be going the other way, she was attacking faster and faster, each swing getting closer to contact with Roman. He'd hold out for a minute or 2 more, but Aya was clearly the better fighter here. The other person in the room was Ash, and he was just cleaning his rifle, watching the show.

After about a minute, Aya got in a poke, and Roman dropped his baton, and held up his hands in surrender. He was breathing hard and sweating, but smiling. He dropped one hand and held it out to Aya, who shook it. "You are good Aya. I see how you survived as long as you did"

"Thank you" Aya said, Alice noticed something about her voice, she was speaking in monotone now. It was kind of creepy, but Alice knew that that meant she was staying, she only spoke like that around people she knew. Aya turned, and saw her, then walked over, placing the stun baton on a bench as she went. "You're Alice right?"

"Yes"

"You said you had Harold here?"

"Yes we do"

"Is he conscious?"

"No"

"Where is the Commander"

"On the bridge I think"

"Thank you" Aya then began walking towards the Bridge

"She's a strange one" Roman said, coming to stand next to Alice as Aya walked off

"Indeed"

"How do you think she moves so fast without tiring?"

"No idea"

"Oh my god, you look adorable" Alice turned to see Ash looking up at her "I like the hat"

* * *

 **"Commander" Aya** approached him as he stood looking at the world hologram in the centre of the room.

"Ah, Aya, how can I help you" The Commander turned away from the map

"I would like to see Harold"

"Why?"

"Because he knows who I am, and I am the only person here who stands a chance against him in close quarters"

"If he flips out, it'll take us a minute to get him"

"I know. I can handle myself"

"If you were anyone else I'd never allow it"

"Which is why it is me"

"Yes. Follow me"

* * *

 **Harold woke** up. He was again on that metal table. After a second of consciousness the Hunt-Pain returned, and he grunted and grit his teeth.

"Hello Boomer" Harold turned, ready to rip some arms off to get rid of the hunt pain, and saw a figure, a woman standing near the wall, she'd probably be leaning on it if the field wasn't there. Harold immediately was on his feet, and was about to punch her, anything to remove that damned pain, but something made him stop. He couldn't tell what, but something about this woman made him pause. Her voice was different to other's as well.

"Who?" Harold asked

"Ah good, you still talk. Aya" the woman said

Harold looked at her, he didn't know that name, he grit his teeth even harder, thankfully he kept some natural defences even through the stims, and didn't grit hard enough to damage his teeth.

"Perhaps you remember me as Psycho"

Psycho, that triggered something. Something deep in his mind, he couldn't recall what, but he knew it from somewhere.

"Smoke?" the woman asked, brining a pack of cigarettes from her pocket. She flipped it, and one of the cigarettes came half out of the pack, she held it up for him to take. She seemed so calm, while the other's he'd seen had been terrified.

He reached out a took it. The woman then brought a lighter from the other pocket and light the cigarette.

He put it in his mouth, and the memories came flooding back. He remembered everything "Aya" he said around the cigarette. The Hunt-pain receded as well, although it didn't fade completely

"I have to say, I'm surprised that worked so fast"

"What? What worked?"

"The cigarette, triggering thoughts of your brother to bring back your memories to the time before you went all stim-crazy"

"How did you-"

"We don't have time to discuss everything that's happened. As long as you have a smoke, you should be able to remember, that's all that matters"

"So if I get rid of it-?"

"You'll probably forget again, yes"

"This is very strange. I still have the pain"

"I don't know what that means"

"I didn't think you would"

"Are you going to punch anyone if we let you out?"

"Nothing that's alive"

"Good enough for me" She reached behind her, and banged twice on the wall. A section of wall slid back into the wall, then to the side. A door.

"I'll introduce you then"

* * *

 **"That simple?"** Alice asked Aya, after she had explained how she'd gotten Harold to be reasonable

"Yes. His brother always had a cigarette, I figured that just giving him one would be enough to trigger memories of his brother"

"Why didn't I think of that?"

"Because you thought it would be something really complicated"

"You are quite wise Aya"

"No. I just knew something about Harold that wasn't in any of your reports" She then walked off towards her room. Alice was really learning to like Aya. She'd be an amazing asset to XCOM. Alice did a quick count in her head. There was only 1 member of the old XCOM unaccounted for. All the others were either confirmed dead, or on the Avenger. Only 1 hadn't been discovered yet. Karl Wagner, Spray. Alice hoped they'd find out what had happened to him, she hated having missing information from her Archive.

* * *

 **Alice sat** in the Sky Ranger yet again. But this time. Only half of them could be considered the nerd Brigade. She had her hair back in a pony tail, which was fed through the gap in the back of the cap, she had her glasses on, she still hadn't found her contacts, and, secretly, she kind of enjoyed not having them. Everyone kept calling her either cute or adorable. Not that she needed an ego boost or anything, she wouldn't care no matter what they called her, but, it felt nice. Across from her was William, with his glasses and cap on, and all his tech equipment on his back. The 2 of them defiantly looked like nerds. But the people sitting next to them defiantly didn't. Next to Alice was Harold. He was the tallest one on the ship, and he was just covered in scars of all different types. His hair was buzzed short, and he looked angry.. He always looked angry. Across from him was Aya. The left side of her face with the burn scar, her hair also cut short. There was defiantly a split between the nerd side, and the badass side of the group this time. Alice was still the one in charge, but Aya and Harold both had a lot more experience than her, they just didn't have the ability to communicate plans to the other's properly. The door slid open, and the ropes dropped down, they got up, and slid down the ropes. They dropped down next to a road. There was a beacon in a building just a block away, and they had to make sure the alien's didn't break it. Just across the street was another building, and there was another across from it, they had to go either over or around the building in front of them.

"Hax, with me, we'll take the roof. Valkyrie, Rage, take the ground"

Alice and William, headed for the drain pipe that would give them access to the roof, and Alice began climbing, followed quickly by William. On the ground, Aya and Harold moved to a truck which was parked along the road. It was past 9 PM, so there was no traffic. ADVENT kept a strict curfew on vehicles. "ADVENT across the street" Alice spoke quietly into her com, across the street, walking past the door. "Valkyrie, Rage. You're go"

Aya and Harold moved forwards. Harold had a cigarette in his mouth, as long as he kept that he would stay under control and not just go charging at anything that moved. They moved up, and without even saying a word, Harold broke cover, and ran at the Trooper with a sword he unsheathed from his back. Just as he broke cover, Aya popped out, and fired her shotgun, from just a couple feet away, right into the Officer's face. Neither knew what hit them. The Officer's head just exploded in a shower of orange blood and red armour. Harold ran straight through the Spray, and decapitated the Trooper with a single swing. Followed by a quiet thump, as the Officer's body hit the floor.

"Sectoid and Trooper, banging" William called out, and Alice turned away from where William was facing, and hear the short bang of his flashbang go off. Alice sprinted across the roof, getting into cover behind the railing (thankfully they built them with full covers, not just metal rails... In some places anyway. ADVENT built things strangely), as she ran, she lined up a shot. The Sectoid was behind a box, he wasn't as covered, but she knew Sectoids were tougher than they looked, some kind of Psionic force field, that would absorb the velocity of the shots. So she targeted the Trooper, who was more covered, but who could be killed with only a couple shots. She fired, and the Trooper stumbled backwards just as she fired. Obviously not a purposeful move, it was disoriented and dizzy, but it saved it's life. She heard a beam of plasma fire, and saw the Sectoid turn and fire into the building. Next to the Sectoid, was the Trooper, shaking it's head to try and clear it's head. They were right next to each other. Quickly, she brought out a grenade, pulled the pin, and threw it. The grenade landed on the boxes, and rolled off, on the aliens side. She quickly ducked back down, so she wouldn't be looked as it detonated. There was a bang, followed by a loud screech from the Sectoid, and the firing of a rifle from next to her. William fired down, and finished off the Sectoid as it reeled from the explosion. "I am a hacker, and I must hack". Alice looked to her side, to see William sending his GREMLIN somewhere, and looked to see it flying towards one of those Tower's that ADVENT transmitted information with. Hopefully he'd get something useful. Alice hurdled the railing, and landed, bending her knees to absorb the short fall. She then got behind a Lamp Post by the road, Aya was behind the side of a truck, reloading her shotgun. And Harold was standing next to her, his sword in one hand, a shotgun in the other. There was a whoop from above, and William dropped down, and got into cover near to Alice, behind an advertising podium. "I got the coordinates to a stash of stuff"

"Stuff?"

"Not sure what, I was doing it quick" She could tell William was trying not to giggle

"What did you do?"

"I replaced the coordinates in their system with a video of a cat dressed as a pirate"

"You are so weird"

"Yeah that's-" He was interrupted as an ADVENT transport flew past overhead, and an Officer and 2 Troopers dropped out of the ship. She was completely unprepared for that. They always dropped a flare before. Luckily, it didn't even Phase the Badass Brigade. Harold sprinted across, and a bang ran out. Hearing the shot made Alice focus, and she quickly fired a burst into the last Trooper, dropping it just as it was about to fire as William. Alice looked over, and saw the other Trooper lying in a pool of orange blood, it's chest was covered as well, he'd taken a shotgun to the chest. She looked to where Harold had gone, and saw the Officer had not gone as simply. Every limb was separated. Both arms, both legs, the head, and the torso were separate. Judging by the lack of screams from the Officer, and how Harold waked, he must have, very quickly, swung his sword in a circle, and got every limb in one swing. Note to self, don't face Harold when he has a sword in his hand. "Damn" William finished

"Form up at the Window. There shouldn't be many left" Alice said. Aya and Harold went right at either side of the window, and Alice went behind some garbage bags (not the best cover, but she needed somewhere with vision, and William went behind a street lamp slightly further back. "Breach" she called

Aya and Harold jumped through the empty window (The glass had been broken by the grenade), Alice followed behind, going to take position by the window that they had been, but saw Aya and Harold still running in, and saw a Sectoid and a Stun Lancer on the other side of the building. Before the aliens could even react, Aya had put her shotgun right up to the Stun Lancer, and taken it's head off like she did to the Officer earlier, and Harold, literally, jumped on the Sectoid, Landing feet first on the alien's chest, and knocking it the ground, then driving his sword through it's chest, pinning it to the ground. Finally, he jumped. It was messy. The alien's chest just burst under his feet. He then yanked the sword back out of the ground, and gave the head a kick. The head, rather than fly off, out the window, like Alice expect, just burst around his foot. Alice did not envy the poor guy who'd have to clean that up in the morning. Alice looked to William, and he gave her a thumbs up "Central confirms, all ADVENT in the area down. I'll do my thing" William then went over to the beacon, and started computering.

* * *

 **An hour** later, Alice got off the Sky Ranger, back onto the Avenger. And Ash approached her. "Can I talk to you?"

"Sure" Alice replied, and followed him to a deserted corner of the hangar "What's up"

"I just got a message from a friend"

"And?"

"I have some coordinates for the Commander"

"So give it to him"

"It'll be easier if you do it" He handed her a piece of paper. She looked at it, it was a set of map coordinates. It was somewhere in Canada, near Alaska. Above the coordinates, was a name Miss Lost. Alice looked back up to ask him about it. But he was already gone.

She'd never heard of this 'Miss Lost', but she trusted Ash, and she went back to the armoury to take her armour off. She'd give the Commander the coordinates once she was out of her gear.


	6. Chapter 6: Secrets and Shopping

**"Welcome to** the Lost Emporium" the figure behind the counter said. It was a small room, and dark, bare metal, except for the metal counter the figure stood behind.

"Miss Lost?" Alice asked. After getting the coordinates, the Commander had ordered the Avenger to make for them, he was just as curious as Alice to find what they were, and nobody could find Ash to ask him. Once they'd arrived, they'd had to spend a couple days finding the exact location. It was an underground bunker. The Commander had ordered an exploration. Alice lead the group, Aya came as well, her shotgun would be deadly in such close quarters, William joined too, they might need to hack through some doors, and Roman completed the group, his demolitions expertise would come in handy if things went south. They had followed a single corridor, and got to a door, William had been about to try and hack it open, when it slid open, and revealed the room in front of them.

"That is one of my names" their hood was pulled up, and the darkness prevented them from seeing their face.

"You like being mysterious don't you" Roman said, it wasn't really a question.

"I like my mystery as you like your privacy" Miss Lost replied "A, diary, a believe, no-one ever see's inside"

"How do you know about that?" William asked

"We know many things here" Lost spread their arms, and the walls slid up, and a second wall slid in. This secondary wall had all sorts of computing equipment along the back wall, files spread across the left wall, and a variety of weapon modifications, and skulls along the right, lights also flashed on from overhead. "Many of which will be useful for your Commander"

"Many things we have to offer" she waved an arm across the counter in front of her, and the metal slid down, revealing a glass case, like in jewellery stores, but it contained what looked like computer chips "But we do not offer this for free"

"Who are you?" Aya asked, Alice could see she was slowly reaching for the knife that she kept in an ankle-sheath.

"You have no use for that" Lost said, and with another wave of her arm, the knife flew up out of the sheath, and into her hand.

"How did you-?" Alice began

"We do not reveal our secrets" Lost said, and held out the knife, it flew back into the sheath. "But, we may be persuaded to part with some"

"Persuaded?" William asked

"We have resources you need. You have resources we need. A simple arrangement"

"How do we know we can trust you?" Aya asked

"We oppose the same foe. The saying 'The enemy of my enemy is my friend' seems particularly apt for this"

"How do we know you aren't working with ADVENT to sabotage us" Alice asked

"Ah, a thinker. Very well. A show of faith". Another wave of her arm, and something dropped from the ceiling, right into Alice's hands "Something ADVENT would never give you. And perhaps, something more personal" she reached up her arms, and pushed her hood down.

It was difficult to tell if the face was human, with robotic parts, or robotic, and made to look human. The entire lower jaw was a dark silver colour, and clearly metal, both eyes glinted with a pale green light, the head was completely bald, but had dozens of thick cables coming out of various parts of the head, and into the back or shoulders, the skin seemed human-like, but it had a kind of toughness to it, that made it look like leather rather than skin. As they lifted their arm to pull back the hood, the sleeves fell down their arm slightly, revealing hands that were made out of the same dirty silver as the lower jaw, and seemed skeletal, along with tubes moving around it.

"Woah!" William exclaimed "That, is, AWESOME!" he took a step forward, then seemed to hesitate "Can I touch it?"

Lost held out it's (for it was difficult to say if it truly was female at this point) arms, and slid up the sleeve of it's left arm with it's right, revealing that the skeletal metallic arm continued up past the elbow, along with the tubing, every few seconds there was a slight hiss and what looked like steam smoked out of the joints of the arm. "Proceed"

William took another step forward, and just touched the arm, after nothing happened, he seemed to get more confident, and he began moving the arm around, messing with it, and looking at it from different angle's. Lost spread her other arm "Have a look, see what you like. Everything has a price of course, but I'm sure we can come to an agreement with your Commander"

"Who is this we you speak about?" Aya asked

"Do you think I do this alone?" there were several burst of steam from the connection of the jaw to the skull, it seemed like laughter. "There are many Misses and Mr's here. Lost is merely the keeper of the market"

"Who are these, Mr's and Misses?" Roman asked

"Agents. They work with us, gathering intel or other resources" it turned to look at Aya "Ensure safety" it looked at Roman "Providing motivation" it turned to Alice "Showing people the dark side", and finally it looked to William, who was still playing with it's arm "Providing motivation".

As Lost mentioned showing the dark side, Aya remembered what it was that had made her realize that ADVENT wasn't as perfect as the propaganda made it out to be. She'd been 19, walking home from her university, when a figure had run past her, and, somehow, gotten her backpack off of her back, and sprinted into an alley. Alice loved her books, and chased after him. She'd managed to keep up, getting to a corner with just enough time to see the figure go around another one. After a few minutes, she'd found the backpack lying on the ground in front of a chain-link fence, she'd figured they'd dropped the bag to get over the fence, she picked it up, and had been about to head back, when she realized she had no idea where she was. She looked around, and saw an ADVENT trooper was standing a short ways down the fence, apparently guarding the entrance. She looked behind the fence, and saw a small building, it seemed no bigger than a garden shed, and she had no idea why an ADVENT trooper would be protecting a shed. She was curious. So she began approaching the Trooper to ask him where the nearest bus stop was so she could get home, where she could try and find out what this place was. Just as she was about to step into view, and vehicle came around the corner. the Trooper opened the gate, and it drove through. While it was stopped at the gate, she saw someone sitting in the back seat. He was sitting looking straight forward, he had a receding hairline of light brown hair, a few wrinkles showed his age. She recognized him, Sean O'Connor, one of very few people who spoke against ADVENT. She hadn't really seen anything about him, but had heard he'd gone missing a few days ago. As the car stopped at the gate the man turned, and looked straight at her, and she realized that his face was covered in bruises, his left eye was swollen shut, and his nose was pointing the wrong way. He looked at her, and she saw that he hadn't bee calmly sitting, he was terrified. He stared at her, with terror in his eyes, and mouthed a single word to her 'Run'. And she had. She'd ran, taking turns at random, and eventually found herself back at the bus stop she had been waiting at before her pack had been stolen. She had then devoted all her time to figuring out what had happened that night, and discovered many unpleasant truth's about ADVENT, hidden deep, deep down in the deepest, darkest Archive's possible to get to.

"That night, in the alley-" Alice began

Lost held up the hand that wasn't being fiddled with "I believe that was Mr Fade"

"How did you-"

"We know much, and can guess what we do not know"

Alice saw similar realizations in the other's eyes. Had these guy's really had a hand in all of their joining XCOM?

"We are a subtle group. We do not engage ADVENT openly as you do. And we knew Bradford was looking for soldiers to re-start the war. We found those with suitable attributes to allow success, and, gave them a push. Not all were successful, but enough were"

"You have your hands in a lot of pies" William said, as he stopped checking out Lost's arm. "Did you guy's fuck with my hacking"

"I do not know the exact details of all the agents, I do not believe I even know all of the agents. Besides" It put it's hood back up "You are here to shop"

"Speaking of shopping" William said "You guy's do cybernetics?"

* * *

 **"Hey guys"** Ash said. He was standing near the Avenger as the group came back, minute William, who was still 'Shopping'.

"Who are you really?" Aya asked

"How much did lost tell you?"

"Quite a bit" Alice replied

"Well. I'm Mr Ash, nice to meet you guys"

"So, you're with this group?" Roman asked

"Yeah. But I was never as good at the whole sleuthing thing, which is why I was sent to you guys. Mr Phoenix figured my skills were better suited to you guys"

"Phoenix?" Alice asked

"One of the higher ups" he held up his hand to silence them before more questions came out "Don't bother asking more, I don't know much, and even if I did I'm not allowed to tell you. Just introducing you to Lost had to be ordered by Phoenix"

"Your boss is Phoenix and you're Ash?" Aya asked

"It was his idea. Rising from the ashes. He likes metaphor's"

"So Ashlie isn't your real name?" Roman said

"I don't know"

"What do you mean you don't know" Roman pressed

"I mean I don't know. I've never had any name for more than a few years"

"What?" This was just too much information in too short a time, Alice was struggling to process it

"I can't tell you much. But basically-" Ash's eyes went wide, and he make a choking coughing sound, then fell backwards.

"What the fuck!?" Alice was just confused, scared, angry, and about 20 other emotions at the same time

After a few seconds there was a loud gasp from Ash, followed by laughter

"No, no, I couldn't hold it any longer, oh god that was too good" Ash was just laughing on the ground "Ow!" he stopped laughing quickly as Aya kicked him sharply in the side

"Stop messing around, and just tell us" Aya snapped

"Okay, geez, just trying to lighten the mood. Alright, so I'm not entirely sure, they never told me much, but, from what I know, and some educated guesses, I think that we're basically raised to be agents of the Shayyyy- I can't tell you that. But we're just raised to be these badass ninja guys or something, and I was never as good at the stealth, so I ended up being the enforcer type deal. I can't give you guy's my entire life story, but yeah, secret agent-type deal"

"What is Miss Lost?" Roman asked

"I think they're an Android. Like, I think they started off human, they went really robotic and stuff. They've been with them a lot longer than I have. Hey, where's Hax?"

"Shopping" Aya replied, walking past Ash and going inside

Roman followed behind her.

"Hey, Alice, are we cool?"

"That depends"

"On what?"

"Do you know a, Mr Fade?"

"Fade? Fade, Fade, Fade. Ah yes, Mr Fade. Not personally, but I can get in contact with him. Why?"

"Just tell him, Archive says thank you"

* * *

 **"Is this** going to hurt" William asked. He was lying on an operating table in a chrome room, there was an assortment of medical equipment around it, and only 1 other person. Miss Lost.

"I do not remember"

"That's comforting"

"You are certain you want this?"

"Yeah. It'll be awesome"

"Very well"

* * *

 **"Hey guys"** William arrived back at the lounge room on the Avenger, all the other soldiers were there. "Check this out" He held up his left hand, and there was a loud crack and electricity shot out of his fingers into the air "Taser Fingers!"

They all just stared at him.

"Oh, I can also do this" from the corners of his eyes, a small beam of blue light shot out, and created a hologram in front of him, it showed all of them looking at him, in miniature, see-through blue form. "And this". The last statement came not from his mouth, but from a nearby speaker.

"You are a strange man" Harold replied before returning to beating the stuffing out of the poor training dummy he had been in the process of the destroying. This broke the spell, and the other's also went back to doing what they'd been doing before, not even giving William a second glance

"You guy's are no fun" William headed back out, going back to his room. This is why he didn't socialize.

On the way back to his room, he bumped into Stacy, one of the resistance fighter's they'd picked up during that operation. He'd been distracted thinking about how to get past ROV-R's firewalls, so he literally bumped into her. When he bumped he got a little shock, and she got a big shock, as he accidently set of his 'Taser Finger's' (Not what Lost had called them). Stacy let out a yelp, and jumped backwards. Her hair, although already short, was all sticking straight up. "The fuck was that!?"

"Uh... Taser Finger's...?" William was getting ready to get punched. He'd bumped into people at school when he younger, often it had resulted in a black eye.

"Wait, you did that with your fingers?" Stacy asked

"Uh, yeah" He held up his hand again, and the electricity cracked out of his hand.

"Thatissocooldhowcanyoudothatcanyouteachme" she spoke so fast that William couldn't even keep up, he got 'That is so cool', then it all blurred together

"Did you just say you think the Taser Finger's are cool?"

"Yeahthat'sfreakingawesome" Again she was speaking really fast

"Then check this out" the holograms came out of his eyes, he hadn't been focused on anything in particular, so a hologram appeared of himself and Stacy in the see-through blue hologram, slowly rotating.

She just grabbed his hand, and began leading him away. William didn't protest. A pretty girl was holding his hand, he was just trying to make sure he didn't electrocute her again.

William wasn't paying attention to where they were going, he was devoting all of his mental capacity to controlling his taser fingers. It was like someone had told him 'Don't think about shocking her'. Just as he felt that he would shock her through loss of willpower, she released his hand, and he released the shock in a loud crack. He'd have to learn how to control that properly. He looked up, and noticed they were in one of the room's on the Avenger, but it wasn't his. His had a big computer against one wall, and most of the panels were missing, and there was exposed wiring all over the floor from his tinkering. But this room, was messy. There was clothes just thrown on the floor, plates of food left on the side, bits of paper strewn about. It took him a second, then he realized that it reminded him of his dorm at college. It was the room of someone who just couldn't be bothered to clean. He liked it. Then he noticed that among the clothes, were bra's. And he finally connected the dots. They were in Stacy's room.

"Uh, what are-" He didn't get to finish his thought, as Stacy just leaned down (she was an inch or 2 taller than him), and kissed him, square on the lips.

"Toodles Taser-Fingers" Stacy said, and walked off, leaving him in her room. William just ended up standing there for about 10 minutes, as he tried to process what just happened.

As he just stood there. He noticed a picture on the table, sitting on top of a box, which was the only reason it was visible above the piled junk on it. It looked like a family photo. There was a dark-skinned girl, with short cut hair, she was kind of blurry in the picture, like she'd been moving when it was taken. Standing next to the girl was a boy with messy blonde hair, glasses, and a cap for some sports team (William had no idea who, though he thought it had an eagle on it?), the boy looked a year or 2 older than the girl. Behind the 2 children were 2 men. One was a large man, well muscled, he looked like a boxer, dark skinned, either very short dark hair, or bald, William couldn't tell. And next to him was a, in comparison, thin man, with glasses and white skin. Written beneath the picture, in what looked like black felt-tip, 'The Digkale's'.


	7. Chapter 7: Hammer and Anvil

**"How is** the research coming?" The Commander asked as he entered the science bay of the Avenger. Tygan was at one of the computer, scanning data and typing. Nearby was Keiran, he was a short man, with short blonde hair, he was a Nano-technician before XCOM, working on small robotic units that could fit on the head of a pin, needless to say, that required precision, and that precision was very useful here. Although he was out of his depth right now, Psionics and Nano-bots are rather different things, but he was trying. Soo was in a different room, separated by a pane of reinforced glass, she was currently dissecting a Sectoid, she was completely in her element. She'd been a coroner before XCOM, someone that investigated bodies to determine how they died. Although human and alien anatomy was different, it was a simple enough transition for her. She was wearing an orange hazard suit, not that they though the Sectoid's blood could be dangerous, but as a just in case, they might have some kind of venom sacks like the thin men did. Tygan looked up as the Commander walled in.

"Very well Commander. With the information we received from Miss Lost we have made great headway into it. I have a decent grasp of the science behind Psionic abilities. Although the practical use still eludes me. And that may become a problem"

"Why?"

"Because, without a thorough understanding of the inner workings of Psionics, there is a chance that even if we do manage to create plans for something to help Maxim, we could miscalculate something and-" he trailed off, but he didn't need to finish that anyway, there were dozen's of scenario's flowing through the Commander's head.

"Is there anyway I could help?"

"I don't believe so. As we are, it could take month's to figure it out enough to create something to help Maxim"

"We may need to drop the research then"

"Indeed, about the only thing that could help us understand it at this point is an active Psionic user"

"What about Harold, he was quite a powerful Psionic before"

"Yes, and he still is, however, his body seems to have reacted strangely, locked the ability away in his subconscious. He can't control it actively aside from keeping the stims going now"

"Any idea how that happened?"

"Probably some reaction between the stimulants and his body. They were never meant to be used for more than a few minutes at a time, let alone 2 decades"

"I will let you get back to work"

"Commander" Tygan turned back around in his seat and went back to work. He'd give them 3 more days he decided. If they couldn't come up with anything by then... Maxim would have to stay asleep.

* * *

 **Alice sat** in her room on the Avenger. She was holding the file that Lost had given her. She had no idea what would await inside. 'A show of faith' Lost had said 'Something ADVENT would never want you to see'. What could that be, secret plans, the location of a new facility. But they could get those on their own with, admittedly, a lot of work. No, this would have to be something that they'd never be able to find out on their own. She carefully pried open the file (She hated ripping files), and managed to get it open with only 1 small rip. Inside was a small stack of papers. She grabbed them, and slid them out. Upon first glance she knew this was big. First off, everything was written in ADVENT writing. That wasn't a problem, On Peng, one of the scientist, could read it fluently. But it showed it was something secret. And there was something else on the front that she semi-recognised. It was a symbol. It looked like the XCOM logo, but instead of 'Vigilo Confido', it had something in ADVENT, and over the XCOM logo, was what looked like a Sectoid head, made out of human skulls. This couldn't be good. She flipped through it, stopped, went back a page, and saw a picture of someone she thought she recognized. She turned to her computer, and brought up an image, and sure enough, it was him. Karl 'Spray' Wagner. One of the soldiers of the old X-COM. This was big. Nobody had heard from Karl in 20 years. If ADVENT knew where he was.. No, she was getting ahead of herself, she looked back down to the file, and went through a couple pages of text, before coming to another mug-shot. This one was of an ADVENT Officer. But something was different. The helmet was the same, with just a plane back background, and only the shoulders were visible below. But there was defiantly something off. She brought up a picture of a normal Officer, and held the file picture up to it. There was defiantly a difference. It was slight, most people wouldn't be able to notice anything, and even Alice couldn't quite tell what it was. She flicked to the last page, and saw another paragraph of text. She couldn't get anything from this, other than it involved Karl in some way. She flicked back to the fist page, slid it into the file. And headed to her door. As the door slid open, it revealed Aya standing there, with her fist up, as if she'd been about to knock. Alice jumped slightly. "Oh, hi Aya. What's up?"

"That file that Lost gave you. Do you still have it"

Alice brought it up from her side.

"Anything?"

"It's all written in ADVENT, I can't read it. I was just about to bring it to Peng"

"Show it to me. I know a little ADVENT"

"Really?"

"Just basics. I had to sneak into some bases a couple times, I picked it up"

"All right" Alice took the sheets out and handed it to Aya. As soon as Aya saw the front page, she nodded

"I've seen that symbol"

"Where?"

"On an Officer, when I found the plans that lead me to the Resistance haven"

Alice nodded, she'd told her the story. "Any idea what it means?"

"Well, the one on the Officer didn't have this writing" She looked at the writing below it, it took her a few seconds to reply. "Hammer, and, Anvil. Any idea what that's about?"

"That was the most common tactic used by Alexander the great. Essentially, bog the enemy down with your main force, the send in a strike force, in his case, cavalry, to strike from the flanks and rear, very effective, and deadly to morale. You should check out the rest of it though"

Aya flipped through the pages, and stopped as she reached the page with Karls mug shot. She seemed to be scanning the page. After a few seconds she looked up "I can't make heads or tails of this"

"Let's just take it to Peng. He'll know what it says"

"Yes" Aya flicked it back to the front page, and slid it back into the folder "I think this will be interesting"

* * *

 **William was** in a daze. What had just happened. He'd bumped into a girl, and electrocuted her. He'd expected a punch, but had instead been taken to her room, and kissed... There was that photo as well, he knew the name Digkale. But it was far from his thought's right now. And what had Stacy been doing. She was normally such a solid person, speaking normally, carefully, very to the point. Then he bumped into her and she's speaking a mile a minute.

"William!" A female voice called out from behind him

William turned, and saw that it wasn't Stacy like he thought. It was Shen

"Hey. You got a minute?"

"What's up?" William asked. He was kind of confused now. Normally women would go out of their way to avoid him. He hadn't gotten pheromone's from Lost had he?

"I just finished working on something. Come have a look, you'll love it" She turned, and lead the way towards the engineering deck. He was really glad she hadn't grabbed his hand, or her would probably have shocked her right on the spot.

He followed her down a couple ladders to the Engineering deck, then down a set of stairs. He'd never been this deep before. Though ROV-R had-. Oh shit. Was this some kind of revenge plot for when he'd hacked ROV-R. He honestly hadn't know that she took ROV-R EVERYWHERE. He thought she'd leave it outside during her shower's. He hadn't even looked at it. She caught on to the hack and deleted the recordings before he got to it, honest. He was about to consider running back the way he'd came, when Shen opened a door, and revealed a wall of armour. Oh good. So she'd finished the Predator armour she'd been working on. He had to stop himself giving off a sigh of relief.

Shen pointed towards one of the suits of armour. It was a mix of white and dark green, like his current armour. "Try it on. Once that's on, I have something else to show you as well". Aw shit, was this just a REALLY elaborate revenger plot, get him into armour so she could... He didn't know. Something! But he didn't really have much of a choice now. He'd been awed by the sight of the armour, and had walked into the room. So now Shen was between him and the exit. He had no choice but to go with whatever Shen was planning here.

* * *

 **"Peng. Can** you have a look at this" On Peng looked up from the screen he was at. As part oft he research team, he was helping with the Psionic's research, but he was a linguist, not a scientist. So his job basically became, 'Hey Peng, translate this would ya'. He looked over, about to shout at Keiran that was still working on the file he'd given him no more then 5 minutes ago, when he noticed that it wasn't Keiran. Or Soo. Or even Tygan. It was 2 of the soldiers. He recognised one of them, Alice, she came down here a few times and had checked out some of the work they were doing. She was the Commander's advisor, so she tended to get around. He didn't recognize the other one. Then again he was kept busy with translations, and rarely left the Research wing.

"Uh, wha-what is it" He had a stutter when he was stressed. A rather strange quirk for a linguist, but there you go. He might have a stutter occasionally, but he could speak just about every language on the planet, from English, to Japanese, to Ancient Greek, to ADVENT.

Alice held out a folder. It was just a plain brown folder like you'd get any file in. It had clearly been opened, as evident by a small rip. He took the file, and opened it. He took out the file. "Hammer and Anvil?"

"Yeah" the other one replied "We got that much"

"Where did you get this?"

"From Miss Lost" Alice answered

"The Black Market robot?"

"That about sums them up, yeah"

He flicked through, and saw that it contained a lot of writing. "Uh, come back in about, I don't know, an hour, hour and a half, and I'll have it translated"

"You can't just do it now?" the other one asked

"No. It's a lot of writing. I could read it out to you, but that could take the better part of an hour, and I do my work better alone"

"Thank you Peng" Alice said "Come on Aya. Waiting 1 hour won't kill us" Alice lead the other one away.

Peng rubbed his eyes, leaned back in his chair, and let out a sigh. What he wouldn't give for one of those ADVENT burger's right now. Sure he'd heard the rumours, bu he was beyond caring, he'd had nothing but military-style rations for a month. He needed some real food. He let out another sigh, opened up a new document, and began translating the 10 pages of text he'd had dropped into his lap. And they wondered why he never left the lab.

* * *

 **William stood** with his new armour on. He had to admit, it was an amazing piece of gear. It was lighter than the old suit, but you tell by looking at it that it had some serious improvements. It even had a mag-lock on the back for all of his gear, and the fingertips of his left hand had been left open, so he could use hi Taser fingers without electrocuting himself.

"How is it" Shen asked. She was leaning against the wall with her arms folded.

"Great. It's so light"

"Glad you like it. Now for the real surprise"

Oh shit, here it comes, she was going to kick his ass or something right. He didn't feel a kick, and re-opened his eyes, and saw a GREMLIN come flying over. It was white, like his, and had the word NOCLIP scratched onto the front. But it just looked, better. He stared open mouthed as it came over, and settled into a position above his right shoulder. "Uhh" was all he could manage to choke out

"I upped the GREMLIN's. They should be faster, tougher, and, I'm sure you'll appreciate this bit, have more processing power"

"How much more?"

"About 4 times what they had before"

"Woah"

"Yeah" Shen had stopped leaning on the wall, and now seemed to be coming out properly as the computer geek she, they both, were. The followed about 20 minutes of non-stop techno babble about how she'd improved the GREMLIN's. William had a great time. Until Shen said "Which should make it easier for you spy on me in the shower"

William stopped dead in his tracks. So she was going to hit him. He stood there, getting ready to brace or run, for about 20 seconds. Before Shen burst out laughing.

"Too easy" she explained as she doubled over from her laughter

"Not funny" William said. Which made her laugh even more, she was holding onto the wall to stop herself from falling. "I thought you were going to hit me".

Slowly Shen recovered from her laughter, a couple stray chuckles still going through her. "Anybody else, and I'm sure you'd been on the wrong end of an ass-kicking. And I'd be taking bets as to how long Zacharie would have to look after you for" she stopped for another fit of giggles "Besides. You've got nothing I want anyway"

With that statement, she turned, and went back up the stairs to the engineering room. This was the second time within an hour that William had been left alone in a room after a woman had done something entirely unexpected. He wasn't used to this much social. But he decided that he didn't really mind it. After about half a minute, he got his act together, and headed back to his room, still not entirely sure what had happened to him today, but deciding to clear his head with some good old- Masambe. The name just shot into his head as he was heading back. Masambe Digkale. Where was that name from? Quickly he sprinted back to his room before he forgot the name. Today was only going to get weirder for William.

* * *

 **"You need** to try harder than that" Roman said as he closed his diary before Sean could get a look, yet again.

"Seriously Roman, how are you doing that"

"You would have to read it to find out"

"You know I'm going to get a look at that at some point"

"Not while I'm around"

"We'll see" Sean called as he went back out of Roman's room.

Roman took a deep breath. For all his bravado, he knew Sean was right, one day he was going to get a look at these. Then none of them would ever look at him the same way again. He should just stop, burn the book, and make sure no-one ever saw it. But he couldn't. He'd spilled his soul into this book, and couldn't just get rid of it, nor could he stop. Once he was finished, he'd take it straight to the Commander, and face the consequences of keeping this to himself. He was nearly done as well. It wouldn't take him more than a few weeks to finish it at this pace. He took another deep breath, and finished off the sentence he was at before he closed the book and put it away. He didn't want to have to put those words, but he knew he needed to get it out. So he wrote down the 3 words he most regrets ever using. 'Hammer and Anvil'.

* * *

 **"How's it** coming Peng?" Alice asked. Peng was just sittign in his chair, staring at what was in front of him. "Peng?"

Slowly he turned to look at them. He ran a hand through his shaggy brown hair, it looked like he hadn't cleaned it in a while. "I need a lie down" was all he said before he got up, and walked past them, heading for the door.

"Peng?" Alice asked as he passed her

"It's all there" he replied as he passed through the door "Every last word" he went around a corner and was gone.

"This doesn't seem promising" Aya said, but Alice was already at the chair, reading the translation. Aya might be fearless in combat, but when it came to knowledge, nobody beat her.

She read through the document, picking up the key facts then turned to Aya, who hadn't been reading it. "Alright, essentially. This, Hammer and Anvil, basically, the ADVENT version of XCOM"

Aya cocked her head to the side

"Small strike force that would go places their larger armies couldn't. Which, on it's own, is bad. If we have to go up against them, it'll hurt. But it get's worse. Well, Karl, he's, he's leading it"

Aya didn't really seem to react, and she spoke with her regular, monotone voice "So there were 2 traitors in X-COM"

"No, that's not it. It seems that Karl was captured that day, and he was the first subject of the alien's 'Gene therapy'. And they turned him into an ADVENT Officer. Now this is an older file. So I can't say what they're doing. But if ever face anyone with that symbol" She pointed to the symbol on the front of the file "We need to be prepared. They'll be well equipped, better trained, and probably with better Gene-mods than the rest"

"You had better inform the Commander" Aya said, and then she turned and walked back out of the room. Alice would have gone after her, but she had to sort this out, and get it to the Commander, quickly.

* * *

 **If it seems like these are coming out fast, it's because they are. It's half-term, so I have a lot of time on my hands, and I'm in a real XCOM mood. So they should keep coming out quickly for this week. Guess we know what happened to Karl now. And if anyone has been wondering about how Harold and Aya managed to use ADVENT weapons. Don't worry, there's explanations for it. It'll just be a while in the coming. This one should be a fair bit longer than the first one. Because it started a good way into the game, while this one started right at the beginning, and this one also has a lot more non-combat stuff to do as well. Thank you for reading, and I hope you stick around for the rest. Shits about to hit the fan.**


	8. Chapter 8: Retaliation

**Harold hated** this part. Moving around the Avenger, he kept himself busy, mostly by beating the stuffing out of training dummy's, and kept the hunt-pain away. But sitting in the Sky Ranger, on the way to a fight, but not able to do anything. The hunt-pain returned with a vengeance. He grit his teeth against it, but had to make sure he kept the cigarette in his mouth. He didn't want to end up forgetting and killing everyone in the Ship. He looked at them all. Ash. He has a good eye, and there might be more to him than meets the eye, but he was a ranged fighter, he wouldn't even put up a fight. Roman. He was strong and tough, but Harold was stronger, faster, and tougher, a bit more difficult, but he still wouldn't be a problem. Alice. She was smart, and good with the rifle, and he'd never seen her in close range, but he could safely assume that he could take down the 'Nerd Brigade' no problem. Aya. She would pose a threat, she's strong, fast, and tenacious. Of everyone in the Sky Ranger, she was the only one that would have a chance of brining him down. It was oddly comforting to know that, if he did flip out, Aya could put him down. He doubted even he could catch her in a fight, she'd just run circles around him, and bring him down with Sword and Shotgun. He just really hoped it wouldn't ever come to that.

* * *

 **Ash was** uncomfortable. Not because the seat was hard, or they were going through turbulence, but because of what they knew about him now. Although none of them actively treated him differently, he could tell something had changed with the way they acted around him. Very well, if they were going to doubt him, he'd just have to prove himself worthy. Just as he did every day before joining XCOM, he'd always worked to prove himself the equal of those around him. It was partly why he's had so many Mr names. He's been everything from Mr Clean, to Mr Sectarian, to Mr Ash, and had done a multitude of different jobs. Although he liked Ash a lot better than the other names, and the job was much better. He found himself dreading the day when Phoenix would call him to return. Hopefully that wouldn't happen for a while, but it was always a possibility. Although he toyed with the idea that when the call came, he'd ignore it, and join fully with XCOM, but he knew that wouldn't happen. When the call came, he'd answer it, just as he was conditioned to do. He shook the thoughts from his head. He needed a clear head to do this properly. He'd have to be really careful with his aim. ADVENT was attacking another Resistance Haven, and this time, they managed to wipe out the fighters too quickly for them to form an Evacuation. So it was up to XCOM to go in and rescue them themselves.

* * *

 **Aya rolled** her shoulders, loosening up the muscles for the fight to come. She was still concerned with Maxim, if the research team couldn't come up with anything, they'd have to table the project, and Maxim would remain in his coma. The bay doors opened, and Aya was the first one down. She slid down the rope, and did a quick scan of her surroundings. They were on a large Plateu, lightly forested, which ended abruptly a short distance ahead. There was a building, just visible in the distance, and there was an RV parked in front of them.

She looked over, and noticed a civilian crouched behind a tree, she was just about to whistle to get their attention, when a green beam shot up from below the edge of the plateu, and struck them in the chest.

"Everyone, move up. Ash, to the roof" Alice called out, and they all began moving. Aya kept cautious, she hadn't seen any ADVENT forces use Plasma weapons before. As she got near the end of the RV, she saw a creature she hadn't seen in years. A Muton. It's armour was a lot less bulky, and it looked more agile than before, but it was defiantly a Muton. It had just finished climbing up a ladder that had been placed on the edge of the plateu, it noticed them, and immediately ran to cover behind the tree the Civilian had just been. Everyone else was on the other side of the RV, so they couldn't even see it. And there was a stack of tires in Aya's way for a clear shot, only Roman had a shot, and he hadn't seen these aliens before. So it took him a moment to fire, and by the time he did, it was already behind the tree. Roman's shots struck the tree, and caused it to begin collapsing off the edge of the plateu (unfortunately not towards the Muton). But Aya was already running. Before the tree even fell over fully, Aya was right next to the Muton, shotgun in hand. It hadn't expected her to move as fast as she did, few things did, and didn't react in time to bring it's gun up before she placed her shotgun right in front of its head, and fired. A Berserker could have taken that shot and punched at her still, but a Muton wasn't that tough, and it had a lot lighter armour than before. The shotgun blast destroyed it's head, and sent it's body flying back off of the plateu, falling down with the tree. Hopefully any civilian's would move out of the way of the tree.

Aya heard a bang, and turned to see Harold aiming his shotgun over the edge of the Plateu, and, judging by the lack of return fire, he killed his target. Aya began heading over, loading another shell back into the gun, to make sure she had a full clip, she could go through ammo fast.

"Form up at the edge" Alice called "Aya, Harold head down. Scout a bit"

Aya nodded, and dropped down the plateu, not even stopping her run, rolling as she connected with the ground to absorb the impact, and to prevent it slowing her, coming out of the roll behind a rock, and turned to see Harold behind a tree next to her, loading another shell into his gun. She looked out, and saw a frozen river in front of them, that would make advancing difficult if they wanted to go in anything other than a straight line across it. For a brief second she noted how insulated their armour is that she didn't even notice the cold, but that thought left very quickly, she didn't go off on tangents during mission. There was a chain fence across the river, and there was some mechanical equipment inside. But that wasn't what caught her eye, along the side of the fence, between it and the cliff edge, were 3 figures. 2 of them, she recognised from combat, and Officer and a Stun Lancer, but the other one she'd only seen on ADVENT propaganda, a massive humanoid robotic unit, a rifle the size of a person in it's hand, and a grenade launcher poking up from it's back. The group noticed them, and began running towards cover, aside from the MEC, which just advanced to the edge of the river, and raised it's rifle. But it never got any further. Aya had seen analyses' of it's armour, and knew a weak point, just under the 'head'. She picked up a large rock from next to her, and threw it. The rock flew true, and struck it straight in the weak-point, damaging the motors and it's Gyro-scope, quickly she then got up, and pumped a shell into it, following the rock, the shots struck into it's 'head' and 'chest', and the robot flew backwards into the fence, deactivated. Riding with the recoild of the gun, she hurdled the rock in front her, slid across the frozen river, grabbed onto the lip of the river with a hand, and flipped herself over and into cover behind a rock. The Stun Lancer from the group was running towards her, and Aya reached behind her for her sword, the Stun Lancer stumbled, as it took a shot to the chest from a sniper rifle, but Stun Lancer's were tough, and it kept coming, but it was wounded, Aya ducked under it's clumsy swing, drove a punch into it's side, then decapitated it with a swing from her blade as it doubled over. There was a sound like groaning, and Aya looked over to see a Civilian stand up, and contort, their body grew, and grew, until they were over 10 feet tall, the arms reached past it's knees, and ended in long claws, it turned, and began running at them. It took a burst to the chest, but kept coming. Aya briefly wondered why a shape-shifting alien would have a such a large natural form, before she raised her shotgun, and pumped a shell into it's head, deforming the face into a mess of meat and orange blood, and dropping the alien before it could even raise it's arm to swing at her.

There were several bangs, and Aya saw a Sectoid get destroyed by a combination of Harold and Roman destroying it's cover with shots that it ducked under, before being killed by a pistol shot from Alice. There was another set of groaning, and another Civilian from further away turned into another of the Shape-Shifting aliens. It began running at them. Aya and Harold both raised their shotguns. Harolds shot connected with it's leg, and Aya fired a the same leg, but just as she fired, that leg seemed to shrink back to human size, so her shell flew through the area the leg had just been, the transformation lasted only a fraction of a second, but it was enough to prevent it being damaged by her blast. She was about to reach for her sword, when the alien seemed to trip, and it collapsed on its face, sliding to a halt on the ground just a few feet away from Aya.

She got around her rock, and kicked it, it didn't move.

"Salut" came a call from behind her, and Aya turned, and noticed a Civilian walking towards them. Hands in the air. "You are, XCOM, yes?" he asked as he came over. He was a short man, and bald, and not just normal bald, he didn't even have any eyebrows.

"We are. Who are you?" Alice said from behind her

"I am Alex Ducan" he had quite a heavy French accent.

Aya wasn't sure she could trust this man, after those 2 civilians transformed, this could be some clever alien. She brought out the knife from her ankle, which she always kept on her, and approached the man. "I need to ensure you aren't an alien"

The man nodded, and held out his arm "I understand"

Aya brought the knife onto the mans palm, and cut the hand. The blood was red. She sheathed the knife again and nodded. The man then clenched the hand, to stop the bleeding, and to help with any pain.

"Check any civilians" Alice called, as they went about securing any civilians. Bradford had scanned the area and confirmed there was no more aliens, though they didn't know if they could detect these new alien form when they were in human form. "Aya, secure him"

Aya nodded as Alice jogged off to get more civilians. "Follow me" she said, and headed back over to the ladder so he could get to the Sky Ranger.

"You are, Valkyrie, yes?" the Man asked as she lead him to the ladder

"That is my nickname, yes. How do you know"

The man tapped his head "I also know that you need a psionic to help your friend Vampire"

Aya turned to the man, now a lot more suspicious. "How do you know this? Are you a Mr?"

"I am not sure what that refers to, but no. I believe the word in English is, a Telepath. Someone who can read minds, collect information"

"You're a psychic"

"Indeed"

They got to the top of the ladder, and began heading for the Sky Ranger, which had now set down in the clearing.

"I wasn't doing it on purpose though. I can normally control when I read people's thoughts, but, your thoughts are, loud, I guess is the best word. I don't know anything more"

"So, you know about Psionic's"

"Some, yes"

"Where did you learn?"

"Difficult to explain"

"Explain it" Aya replied in French

The man replied in French, he looked surprised for a moment "Oh. You speak French. Well then. Since I was 14, I always heard voices, went to therapists, took drugs, nothing helped. One day, a man approached me, introduced himself as, Mr Mind, and said he could get rid of the voices. I would have done anything at that point. He taught me all about this power, how to control it, and the theory's behind it. This training lasted years. I'm sure my parents just think I disappeared. Once I reached 26, the man said I was done, and dropped me off here. I've been living here for 10 years now"

"Of course it was them" Aya muttered in English

"Pardon?"

"Never mind. You know how psionic's work then"

"Some of it. I am not very strong with my abilities. Even if I put in a lot of effort, I still cannot get more than surface thoughts and feeling. Things you are feeling and thinking at the moment"

"Would you be willing to assist XCOM's research team?"

"Of course"

Aya stopped faking emotion in her voice "Then come with me"

* * *

 **"How is** the researching coming" The Commander asked Dr Tygan

"Excellent" Tygan turned around in his chair "With Mr Ducan's help, we have devised a method of containing Maxim's excess psionic energies. However, this will require a decent amount of space to contain. I am just finishing up the blueprints to send to Dr Shen"

"How long will construction take?"

"Not long. We have all the available resources. It is actually quite amazing, it's such a simple combination of materials, but it works amazingly. With Shen and a couple Engineers working, not much longer than a week I should think"

"Then I will tell Shen to get working"

"Oh, one other thing Commander"

"Yes"

"It appears that this will have some side-effects on Maxim. While allowing him to regain consciousness, he will need to carry a round a device to focus the energies at all times, or he will return to the coma. And, he will have to re-learn how to use them"

"Why does he need to re-learn?"

"Because it will be a way of harnessing powers completely new to him, and a new power level"

"So we are back to square one. We still need someone to train him"

"Not necessarily. Mr Ducan has said he would be more than happy to train him"

"Can he do it?"

"I believe so. Although we can't exactly afford to be picky. The only other person we know of that could do this, is this Mr Mind character Ducan described. And going by the description, it seems he is with Miss Lost"

"Meaning we'll never find him"

"It appears not"

"Very well. Send Shen the blueprints. And tell Alex to prepare himself, Maxim can be a handful"

* * *

 **We're finally getting Maxim back. So excited to write from Maxim's perspective again. Especially with his new-found power. Thank you for reading, and I hope you are as Hyped as I am for everything to come.**


	9. Chapter 9: Awakening

**Maxim slowly** woke up. He still felt tired, but his mom would always yell at him if he went back to sleep. So he sat up, and stretched, then opened his eyes. This wasn't his room. He looked around, still half-asleep, so not fully aware of what's going on. It was a small room. Just about 3 times the size of the bed he was on. In the corner was some kind of strange device, it was a large boxy thing, with a purple hologram of DNA floating above it. 2 of the walls were metal and plated, the 3rd wall was curved and was made of what looked like glass, there was one section of it, with the yellow and black stripe hazard thing around it, it looked like a door, there was only the 3 walls. He looked up, and saw another device on the roof, a circular device sticking out of the ceiling slightly, and there was a purple mist that seemed to be getting sucked up into it. He looked out through the glass, there was a computer on a table across from him, and the back of the room had stacks of boxes, other than that, it was basically just all bare metal. He walked up to the glass, and could just about see his reflection in it. He jumped back in surprise, then looked again. His hair was stark white, like it had been bleached. It was also longer than he's even had it, reaching past his shoulders. And his eyes, they were purple. He looked at his hand, and was shocked to see that he could see the bones, and musculature in the hand. He jumped back and blinked, then it faded back to normal. His heart was going nuts.

"Ah, you are a awake" came a heavily French accented voice. Maxim looked over to see a short man, completely bald (He didn't even have eyebrows), come walking in though a door in one of the metal walls outside.

"Who are you? Where am I? What happened to my hair and eyes?"

"Do not worry. You are with XCOM"

"XCOM?"

"Do you remember?"

"Vaguely"

"The memories should return in time, you have been out for a long time"

"Out?"

"You have been in a Psionicaly induced coma for just over 20 years"

That hit Maxim like a punch, he took a step back "Did you just say I've been asleep for 20 years?!"

"Yes"

"What, how-"

"I will explain everything with time, but we should wait for your memories of before to return first"

"Fine. But what happened to my hair and eyes?"

"A side-effect of Unleashed Psionic potential" the man motioned to his own head "You are fortunate, you still have your hair. And as for the eyes" the man open his eye lids with one hand, then took out a contact with the other, then looked back at Maxim, and he saw that his eye was also Purple, he was wearing green contacts. After showing Maxim the eye, he put the contact back and blinked it in. "Another unfortunate effect of Psionics in the body"

"Is there anything else?"

"For someone of my power, not that I've found. For you? I don't know. Anything is possible"

"Who are you?"

"Oh, sorry, how rude of me. I am Alex Ducan. I shall be re-teaching you about your powers"

Maxim began getting some memories back "Where's Aya?"

"Ah, you are remembering already, impressive, I thought it would take a few days before they began returning. Aya is fine, she is here, on the Avenger"

"Avenger?"

"We are on a ship. XCOM has changed since you were last with it. I shall explain it all in time"

"Can I come out of this room?"

"For now, unfortunately not. You see that device in the ceiling?" he pointed to it, and Maxim looked at it again "That device is funnelling away your latent Psionic abilities, so you do not return to the coma you were in. Were you to step out, it is likely you would merely collapse again"

"So I'm basically a prisoner?"

"No no no. You are here only as long as you need to be, until Dr. Shen finishes construction on a portable version of the device. If you need to think of it like that, it is more like, you're under, house-arrest essentially"

"Can I see Aya?"

"I can call her over, but it would be best if she did not enter the room. There's a lot of psionic energy floating around in there"

"Fine. You said you have psionics?"

"A small amount"

"What can you do?"

"Surface telepathy. I can tell what you are currently thinking or feeling, or project my thoughts into your head"

"So what am I thinking?"

"I cannot tell"

"You just said-"

"For most I can do that. But other psionic users have very powerful mental protection, and you do not know how to control it consciously yet"

"Isn't that convenient"

"Do you want me to call over Aya?"

"You said I'm still getting back my memories?"

"Yes, although you are getting them more rapidly than I thought, no more than a couple days until they all return"

"Then I should wait until I remember everything"

"That would probably be best"

"One last thing"

"Yes?"

"Do you have any scissors?"

* * *

 **William** **knocked** on Alice's door. If anyone would know where he'd hear the name Digkale from, it'd be her.

"Come in" Alice called from inside

William opened the door and stepped in. Alice turned around from her computer "Oh, William, how can I help you?"

"Masambe Digkale"

"Excuse me?"

"What's that name from"

"Masambe Digkale was one of the Soldiers of the original X-COM. He was one of the ones with Psionic powers, and he was the one that used the Gollop device, and saved the earth from the alien ship that had been about to explode into a black hole"

"You didn't even have to look that up"

"No. Why did you want to know?"

"Did he have a family"

"A husband and 2 children. I don't have any records of them. They went missing a few days after the beginning of the Alien invasion"

"I think I found one"

"What?"

"Stacy. She had a picture in her room, with 4 people, 2 men, and 2 children. With 'The Digkales' written on it"

"Why were you in Stacy's room"

William blushed furiously and looked away

"Woah, Will?"

"It's not like that. We just kissed... Can we focus on the big picture here"

"All right. But you've got to tell me what happened later"

"Fine" He really didn't want to talk about that stuff, he wasn't even sure what had happened himself.

"So, you think Stacy is the daughter of Masambe?"

"Yeah. Why else would she have a picture of him in her room?"

"Maybe she's a fan" Alice smiled "No, you're right. I'll have a look, see what I can find, we don't want to jump to conclusions here. It's possible she just shares a last name and had a similar family build"

"I guess"

"Hey Will"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks"

"For what?"

"For telling me this. I love finding stuff out"

"I just knew you'd know who Masambe was"

"You ever need any information that isn't hacked, you can always come to me"

"Yeah" William walked back out. He'd had too much social for 1 day. He went back to his room, and flopped onto his bed. If he had a health bar that went down when he took too much social damage, it'd be blinking red right now. He looked over at his GREMLIN. "Why can't everyone be as simple as you NOCLIP"

"Because people are difficult" said a voice. William looked over to see Stacy standing in the doorway. Note to self: Lock door.

"Uh, wha-. Hi. What are you doing here?"

"I figured you must be pretty confused by what happened a couple hours ago"

"A bit"

She sat down on the bed next to him "I'm sorry if I was a bit forward there"

"Uh, no it's, it's fine"

She smiled "I guess I just have a bit of a Cyber-Kink"

William blushed bright red again, and tried to bury his face in a pillow

Stacy laughed "You are so easy"

"I'm better with computers than people" William said into the pillow

"I'll leave you alone then" William felt her get up, but didn't remove his face from the pillow

"William. That wasn't just a one-off thing. I do like you" the door slid shut, and William was along with NOCLIP again. He was this close to screaming into the pillow. The hell had just happened. Since when did girls start saying the liked him. Maybe Lost _had_ given him some kind of pheromone implant or something while he got the Taser-Fingers.

* * *

 **"Maxim, how** are you doing?" Alex asked as he came into the lab again.

Maxim had been doing sit ups on the floor. Because he had nothing else to do. This was reminding him of the time he'd been training to see if he had Psionics originally. Out of boredom, he just worked out. He stood up as Alex walked in. "I've got my memories up until I passed out after, teleporting, I guess, away from the X-COM base. And I'm now really bored"

Alex smiled "Understandable. And I believe that is all of your memories back. From what Aya has told us, you teleported to you old apartment, then passed out. You woke up a couple times over the last 2 decades, each time for just a couple seconds, said some warning, then passed out again. Last time it happened, you said Blood Way. And that lead her to the Resistance haven that was being attacked, and brought her into contact with the XCOM forces there"

"Guess I have some future-sight as well then"

"Again, that may not be a conscious ability though"

"Yeah. This whole conscious and unconscious ability thing is annoying"

"You will learn. Eventually you will be able to control all of your powers"

"You'll be teaching me?"

"I am the only person that we know that has receive similar training. So I will be doing my best"

"But first-"

"Ah, yes. You wanted to talk to Aya once you remember everything?"

"Yes. Could you call her"

"One moment" Alex walked over to a panel next to the door, and spoke into it. It was too quiet for Maxim to hear "Knowing Aya's speed, she'll be here in moments"

"Have you guys found out how she's so fast?"

"No. Tygan has some theories, but nothing we could actually test. Though we have found she can run faster than Usain Bolt, and can keep up her speed for hours"

"What's your idea?"

"Simply a wonderful genetic mutation. There are some people out there. I remember a T.V show I watched when I was young, they went around finding people with extraordinary abilities. One that had similar abilities to Aya, simply did not produce Lactic Acid in his muscles, which made it so that he never got tired. He could theoretically run for days on end without tiring. I believe Aya has something similar, and also has very efficient muscles"

"Somehow that's more confusing than my own abilities"

Alex laughed

"What are you two talking about" A familiar voice said from the doorway. Maxim looked over to see Aya there. He would have run over and hugged her if he could have left the room.

"Aya!"

"I shall leave you two alone" Alex said as he walked past Aya "Just remember, Maxim stays inside, Aya stays outside"

"What was that comment about?"

"If I leave the room, I might pass out again, and if you come in" Maxim shrugged "There's a lot of psionic energy in here. Maybe you explode"

"That would be an anti-climactic way to go, wouldn't it"

Maxim chuckled "Yeah"

Aya approached the glass "So, the Vampire must remain inside, and the Valkyrie must stay out. We each fit our names well"

"I thought you were Psycho"

Aya smiled "Valkyrie fits better"

"Wasn't that what I called you before I passed out"

"I believe so"

Maxim smiled. Aya might not really have emotions properly, but he knew she cared about him. She'd protected him for 20 years, and had started calling herself the nickname he gave her.

"Your eyes are still purple" she said

Maxim looked down, he still didn't know what to think about the new colour "Apparently it's some kind of side-effect of Psionic energies or something"

"They suit you"

"Really?"

"Somehow purple eyes work with you, the white hair sticks out though"

"I have white hair, you have a burn scar on your face. We've both taken something permanent from X-COM"

"Yes. But we are not done"

"No. Now we've got those ADVENT guys to deal with"

"Yes"

"They'll learn to fear the Valkyrie and the Vampire"

Aya smiled again "They will fear Rage as well"

"Rage?"

"Harold is back as well"

"Why's he Rage now?"

"He's had those combat stimulants in him for 20 years. He's always angry, and spends him time destroying things"

"Seems like nobody survived X-COM unscathed"

"No"

There was a few seconds of silence. It wasn't quite uncomfortable silence, but it was comfortable silence either. Maxim was the one that broke it. "I was out for 20 years?"

"Yes"

"You were with me for that time?"

"Yes"

"What happened. I don't remember everything"

"A lot happened"

Aya then spent the next few hours explaining what had happened since he passed out. Maxim listened intently, and only broke in a couple times when he didn't understand something. When she finished, there was only one thing missing. "So, we know what happened to everyone else. But nobody's heard from Karl"

"That is where I have some bad news" She brought out a file she'd been holding, and Maxim hadn't noticed, and put it into the slot in his door. She closed her side, and Maxim opened his side, and brought it out. He read the file, and paled even more.

"So, Karl's an enemy now?"

"It appears so"

Maxim took a shaky breath. He remembered Karl as the joker Street Artist. Now he was some big bad evil guy.

"I'll leave you to think" Aya turned and began walking off

"Wait, Aya, don't go" she stopped before she left and turned back around

"Yes?"

"It's so boring in this room"

Aya smiled again "I do not believe there are any game devices on the Avenger"

"Crap. Then I either have to work out, or convince you to stay here"

"I spent 20 years staying with you while you were asleep. I can stand another few hours"

Maxim smiled "Thank you"

* * *

 **A week** later, Maxim had re-learned how to use his first power. Similar to Mindfray, but this one wouldn't disorientate, only hurt, and it was impossible to resist, no matter what your mental defence. Although it inflicted no actual visible damage, things would just get hurt and/or die. Maxim named it Soulfire. Since it was like he was just burning their soul. He was also learning how to temporarily increase the reactions of a friendly target. Allowing them to move faster and do more than they normally would be able to. He named it Inspire, since it worked similarly to the original power of that name, but was focused on 1 person.

Alex walked in, he had a strange device in his hand. It was metal, and thin, and had a handle, then a generator-like-thing in the middle, and ended with 2 prongs pointing at each other, there was a small purple glow between the prongs, just a dim light.

"Hello Maxim"

"Hey Alex. What's that thing?"

"This is the portable device Shen was working on. The Psi Amp"

"So I'll be able to leave this room?"

"As long as you keep this device on or near you. Yes"

"Gimmie"

Maxim went over to his door slot. Alex laughed, and put it in his side. Maxim opened his side, and took it out. It was surprisingly light. It looked really heavy, but weighed nearly nothing. He noticed that when he picked it up, the tiny purple ball of light grew from the size of a pea, to a bigger than a tennis ball, and the light grew as well. It was like he was holding a small light bulb.

"The ball shows the power of your Psionic abilities. Clearly you are a lot more powerful than me"

"Whatever, I just want out of the damn room. How do I open the door?"

"Give it a push"

"Seriously. That's it? I thought it was locked"

"Which is why we didn't need a lock"

"You clever mother-fucker" Maxim pushed open the door with his free hand, and stepped out into the rest of the room "I'm free"

Alex chuckled, and handed him another small device, this one had a strip of material. "What's that?" Maxim asked

"This is a mag-lock. Put in on like a sash, with the device bit on your back, then you can put the Amp on it. So you don't have to carry it everywhere"

"Great" Maxim put the Mag-lock on, and slapped the Amp onto it. "Uh, where is everyone?"

"I believe they tend to hang out in the Lounge. I'll lead you there" Alex lead him out the Psi Lab, and down a short hallway to a ladder "We do not have elevators" he explained as he began climbing. Maxim followed. After leading him up the ladder they went across a room with computers along the walls, and a big hologram of the earth in the middle. To a door. "Through here" Alex then began walking off "I will see you later Maxim"

"See ya" Maxim took a breath. He only knew 2 of the people in there, and was concerned he'd come across a group of Ryo's. Aya had refused to tell him anything about them, saying it would ruin the surprise. He opened the door and stepped in.. To the middle of a food fight. There seemed to be 3 groups, all of them behind tables they had thrown up on their sides for cover. There was 3 people in each group.

To the right was 2 men and a woman. One of the men had a cap on, along with a shit-eating grin, and he was hurling handfuls of mashed potatoes over the table at the others. The other man was shorter, with brown hair in a receding hairline, he had some wrinkles showing his age, but it was his legs that drew attention, they were robotic, and only had 2 toes, like a Turian from Mass Effect. The woman had brown hair, tied back in a ponytail, which was feed through a cap with the XCOM logo it, she was wearing glasses, and seemed to be discussing tactics with the man with the robot legs, she looked cute with the glasses and cap. They very much looked like the nerd group, gathered around and discussing tactics for the food fight.

To the right was another 2 men and a woman. Aya was standing up in front of the table, just dodging out of the way of anything that was thrown at her, everything striking the table behind her. She even caught some of the more solid food, and threw it back at who threw it. Behind the table was a short man, dark skinned, and bald, he was crouched down, gathering all the food he could, and handing it to the other man. The other man was Harold, though he was a lot more scared than Maxim remembered, and he was throwing the food with amazing strength, Maxim half-expected the food to go through the tables.

The final group, at the back of the lounge, had another set of 2 men and a women (they seemed to have a fair distribution of the sexes here), the woman had dark skin and short black hair, cut military style, her arms seemed like a blur, as she reached down, grabbed something and threw it, the repeated, using both hands at once. One of the men had a gas mask on, with a tinted visor, so Maxim couldn't see his face, he was bald, and had dark skin, he was grunting and making other noises. It reminded Maxim of what the Pyro would say in Team Fortress 2. Finally, there was one more man, who popped up every now and then, and took time to line up a shot, he had blonde hair, just under shoulder-length, and a hat, like that Australian-type, but without the dangly bits. Maxim recognised that behaviour of lining up each shot, he was clearly an accuracy guy. He was the sniper.

They hadn't even noticed Maxim yet. He liked these people, not a Ryo in sight. He felt a twinge, and knew he had an idea. He grabbed the Psi amp off of his back, and, reached in, grabbed the purple ball, then threw it towards the middle. It elongated into a purple line, when it reached the middle of the room, it quickly spread out in a wave, and all the food flying threw the air, slowed right down to a crawl. Everyone looked around. It must have been weird to see everything suddenly slow down. Only Aya didn't seem affected. "A bit of a dramatic entrance Vampire"

Everyone turned to look at Maxim, who was still standing by the door. He smiled, and waved. "Hey. Just needed a stop for a second so I could say hi. Now. Let's do this shit" he released the power, and the food returned to normal speed. Maxim ran over and joined Aya's team

"Hello Maxim" the bald man said as he crouched down behind the table he held out his hand to shake, he had slight German accent "I'm Roman. Nice to meet you"

Harold grunted a hello, but continued throwing food at the other groups.

The food fight lasted for a few more minutes. And Maxim was correct in guessing that the left group was the Nerd group. A minute or so after Maxim joined he felt a presence behind him, and turned to see robot legs right behind him, with a handful of mashed potatoes in each hand. He clamped a hand around Maxim and Roman's faces, covering them in potato. Maxim wiped Potato out of his eyes, and saw Robot legs then shove another handful down Harold's shirt. And heard similar sounds from the other team. They'd pulled off a stealth pincer movement. Although how Mr Robot legs had gotten all the way across without Aya seeing him was amazing.

"Apparently your perception only applies when you're writing your diary Roman" the man said. He turned to Maxim "I am Sean" he had a very soft voice, and although he was speaking quietly it was easy to hear him over the shouting of the rest of the room.

"Maxim" Maxim replied, shaking his hand

"Aya has told us a lot about you" Sean said

"Really?"

"Let's hope the Vampire can live up to his stories"

"Thanks. Nice legs by the way"

"Thank you"


	10. Chapter 10: Omega

**"Commander. The** AVATAR project is entering it's final stages" Bradford said as the screen in front of him started flashing red with the logo.

"Excellent" The Commander replied "Alert lost, and get the soldiers ready"

"This is a really risky move Commander, as I've told you. If either group of our soldiers, or Lost and her group mess up, they will finish"

"Yes. But we must take that risk. They think they're about to win now. Then we're going to take out 2 of their facilities, and lose the data they already have all at once. It will devastate them and leave them reeling"

"I trust you Commander"

"That is all I ask Bradford"

"Who's going to be in Alpha Team?"

"Get Roman, his explosives expertise will be invaluable with the amount of cover available to ADVENT there. We'll need Alice of course. William, they're likely to have turrets and other mechanical defences. Aya, her speed and close range ability will be useful in the tight confines of the facility. And Maxim"

"Maxim sir, are you sure?"

"Yes"

"We still don't know how his powers work"

"We know enough, and Aya would be off if Maxim wasn't with her. She may not show it, but she cares deeply for him, pairing them together is the best way to ensure the most out of each of them"

"Very well. And the Beta Team?"

"Ash, he's still looking to prove himself to the other soldiers after we found out he's a Mr, so putting him with the Beta team will give him a chance to mix with the soldiers he isn't always with. Stacy, she's shown herself to be just as effective at command as Alice. Sean, they won't be able to hack without William, so being able to stealth will be useful. Harold, they'll need their own close quarters fighter. And Pyro, he's the closest to a demolitions expert we have aside from Roman, if nothing else, he can burn that place down"

"Very well Commander"

"See that it's done" The Commander went back to his quarters above the Command deck, sighed as he saw the stack of files, even when they're not doing this as an official agency, he still get's piled with paper work. As he stepped in, the screen on the far side flickered on, and the shadowed figure of the chairman came on screen.

"I hope you are aware of the risk you are taking, Commander"

"I know"

"You are putting a lot of trust into Miss Lost and her organisation"

"She has given us many stories of their success, all of which have been backed by our own resources, and they were responsible for our soldiers being motivated to join us. They have a lot of resources, and a lot of foresight. I do not doubt their skills for a minute"

"You have judged character, incorrectly, before"

"That was unfortunate, and unforeseen, it shall not happen again"

"We had best hope that it does not, for all our sakes"

"Are your people ready?"

"My teams are in position, ready to strike on your order. You have gotten me to set up quite a network for this strike. Even if all goes well, however, I will still lose a lot of resources, the Resistance will take a blow"

"It's unfortunate, but necessary. I have everyone of my soldiers getting ready to move out to their facilities now. I just need all the progress they made from those facility wiped"

"Good luck Commander"

The screen winked black again, and the Commander slumped onto his chair. God, he loved that guys voice, but he so rarely used it to say nice things to him. But he knew he was right, this was a huge gamble, if anything went wrong, ADVENT could finish their Avatar project, and that was sure to spell doom for XCOM, and earth in general. He still couldn't believe what the Chairman had said to him when he'd met him again after being rescued from the facility. All of the council countries had surrendered to the ADVENT coalition, except him. One thing he couldn't believe, was that Russia had surrendered. Russia! He'd expected to come back to find Russia and bombed out waste, but no, they'd surrendered as well. Only the chairman was still with them, and he didn't have the resources of countries now. Although he was essentially commanding the resistance, he didn't outright command them, they all worked independently, it had taken a lot to organise synchronised strikes on all the locations he needed to. Convoys had to be stopped, Gene clinics destroyed, files erased, and those Facilities had to be destroyed. The Resistance would be dealing with the convoys and other physical places of value. Miss Lost and her group, they still refused to give the name of their group, would be dealing with the non-physical side, eliminating files and what-not, along with a few assassinations. He'd have asked them to go for the Speaker, but there was no way anyone could get near him. And then XCOM would be taking out the facilities. 2 Strike teams. Alpha team would take the Sky Ranger, and take out the Blacksite in the Western US. Meanwhile they'd be taking the Beta team to the UK to take out the other facility. And while transporting them, only a skeletal crew would be left on the Avenger. Most of the crew would join the resistance in some more vital strikes, to ensure success. Everything had to go right. A couple resistance strikes could fail, indeed were expected to fail, for all their guts and gumption, the Resistance didn't have the equipment or training to be a real force. Dozens would die from failed strikes, and that was on his head, but it was inevitable.

Alice had given him a book. The art of war by Sun Tzu. And he'd taken the teachings of that book to heart. For this battle, 2 fit particularly well 'Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak'. He'd followed that one to a tee here. He'd told the resistance to start pulling back any direct engagements, make them seem weaker, and his own forces had deliberately arrived late to a few non-vital missions, to make ADVENT think they were running low on resources. So that when this strike comes, ADVENT will be underprepared for it. This tactic will only work once, as ADVENT isn't known for falling for the same trick twice, but hopefully this strike would damage them enough to make it worth it. And of course, something he always believed himself 'A leader leads by example, not by force'. They'd all be taking to the battle field today. He got up, and pressed a panel on the wall, a section slid up, and another part came out. There was a suit of predator armour, a dark red colour, with black highlights on it, above the armour was a sniper rifle, and on either suit of the suit was a sword. He'd had Shen make these when she'd made the new armour and equipment for the soldiers. He'd put in time on the practice range to ensure he wasn't rusty, and had received a couple implants from Lost to make sure he could fight at full efficiency. He was kind of looking forward to it. A chance to take on ADVENT without the use a papers. He took down the equipment, and began putting it on. He put the com in his ear. "Bradford, is the Omega team ready?"

"Yes sir, we are waiting for you down below"

"I'll be down shortly. There's one last thing I need to do"

"Yes Commander"

He rolled his shoulders to loosen up the muscles. His sniper rifle was across his back, and the swords were on his hips. He went out of his room, and began heading for the rooms. He got to the room without bumping into anyone, which made sense, it was 2 in the morning, and knocked on the door. After a few seconds he heard someone get out of bed, and walk over to the door. The door opened and Alice was there. Her hair was loose behind her, here glasses were on crooked, and she was wearing a large shirt and underwear. She was rubbing her eyes under her glasses. "Can I help... you" She half-stopped as she noticed the Commander in full battle gear "Commander?"

"Alice, I need to talk to you, but I need to be quick"

"Yes Commander" She didn't seem tired anymore. If there was anyway to wake Alice up, it was with the promise of information. there was a reason she was Archive.

"I am engaging something I've been planning for a while, I am sorry I didn't tell you about it, but it was simpler for you to not know, and wouldn't weigh on your mind. We are launching strikes against ADVENT. I myself am taking the field as well, and you all are to take out 2 facilities. I am entrusting the Command of the squads to you and Stacy. But, I am entrusting you with more than that. Should you get back tot he Avenger, and I don't return within a few hours, and Bradford also doesn't show up. I need you to take Command of XCOM"

"Commander, are you, are you asking me to be your heir?"

"I guess. If neither I nor Bradford return from this, you have the best tactical mind, and the most knowledge to command them in my absence" He placed a hand on her shoulders "I need you to do this for me. 4 hours, not a minute more. If I don't return , take the Avenger, and carry on. If I am indeed still alive, I'll get the Chairman or Lost to contact you, or just meet with you myself through the resistance. But if we get caught out... I won't get captured again. You don't have to worry about them using me against you again. I had lost install a chip, which goes into all their agents. If I get in that situation. They aren't get me alive again. Do you understand me?"

Alice nodded "I understand Commander. I'll do the best I can if you don't return"

"That Is all I ask. If you'd do one other thing" He reached into a pocket, and brought out a small leather-bound book, the writing on the front was faded, only a few words could still be made out. The ... .. War. ... Tsu. "Hold this for me"

Alice took the book, and nodded again, sternly

"That's my Archive" he pulled her into a hug. She seemed shocked for a second, then hugged him back.

The Commander stood back up. "Hopefully I'll come back, and we can imagine this never happened"

Alice nodded again "Good luck"

"You too. Get some sleep though, you've got a big day tomorrow" he jogged off down the hallway to meet up with Bradford.

* * *

 **Alice watched** the Commander go. Really hoping they could indeed forget this talk happened. She was good with tactics, and had read just about everything there is to read. But could she command the Avenger? She really hoped her Commander would come back.

* * *

 **"Is it** done?" Bradford asked as the Commander dropped down through the hatch, and joined Omega team. The group consisted of: Himself, Bradford (Wearing predator armour, with a rifle and sword on his back), S (The leader of the Resistance cell in Mexico. Her name was Sophie, but she preferred S, she was tall, with black hair, and was wearing a thick armoured trench coat over a shirt and trousers, she had a rifle in her hands, and a pistol on her waist), and Mr Phoenix (he was tall, nearly 7 foot, with long red hair, and a trimmed beard. He had a shotgun in hand, which was silenced, and a sword on his back),

"It's done" the Commander looked at them "Everybody ready?"

"Yes Commander" Bradford said, taking out his rifle, and checking the clip.

"Affirmative" Phoenix replied in a robotic rumble. It seemed that a lot of the Mr's and Miss's had a lot of cybernetics.

"This better work. I got my guys spread halfway across the country doing these strikes, a lot of them aren't going to make it"

"I know, it's unfortunate. But this must pay off"

"Yeah. If your guys fuck this up, we're all dead" the Commander couldn't tell if she was talking to him or Phoenix.

"Bradford, is the vehicle ready?"

"Yes"

"Lead the way"

Bradford lead them a short way away, over a small hill, and down into a valley. Sitting at the bottom of the valley was what looked like a military jeep. Bradford got in the drivers seat, the Commander got next in the passenger seat, and S and Phoenix got in the back.

* * *

 **A few** hours later they arrived at their destination. They pulled the jeep up in a forest, out of view of the road, and got out.

"My men have already set up the block, they're ready to spring on your shot"

The Commander nodded. "Everyone get in position" They all spread out. Maxim stayed in the forest, laying down at the edge of a hill, so anyone wanting to get at him would have to run uphill, and he could easily stand up, and slide behind a tree. Bradford was further down the hill, getting behind an outcropping of rock. S went over to the van that was lying on it's side along the road. With several people standing around it, apparently trying to figure out how to fix it, they looked cut up, like they'd been in a crash, but it was all superficial. S was with them, apparently trying to find a way to flip it back over, her rifle on the ground nearby, hidden from sight, her pistol hidden by her trench coat. The others would have similar weapons hidden on them or around. They were all ready and waiting to jump to their guns when things went down. For all intense and purposes, Phoenix was gone. He was nowhere to be seen. But he knew he'd pop out with that Shotgun when they started.

An hour or so later a rumbling could be heard in the distance as an ADVENT convoy came approaching. The Commander crouched back further into cover, but kept his rifle resting on the ground, and he was looking through the scope, aiming at the road. 4 Vans came into view and slowed to a stop as they saw the flipped van blocking their way. The front one came to a stop, and an Officer stepped out from the back, and came around to the front, walking towards the people trying to fix the van. S stepped up to talk to it, as the Officer stepped up, he noticed a logo on it's shoulder. He recognised that logo. It was the logo of Hammer and Anvil. Alice had showed him the translated file. This was going bad already, and that wasn't good. He was too far to hear, and S had taken her coms out, so they wouldn't see it. The Officer and S had a short conversation then the Officer walked back over to the van, and the other AVDNET soldiers got out. Apparently doing a search of the area. There was a small hut down the road, and he saw a group of 3. An Officer and 2 Stun Lancers heading over to it. He felt sorry for the people living there. But also grateful that it got rid of those 3. It made this next group a bit easier. He lined up his shot, and gently pressed the trigger as he breathed out. The loud echoing bang of the sniper rifle firing was preluded by the Officer he shot falling to the ground, and a dozen more bangs as the Resistance group around the van produced weapons and fired while getting into cover. Phoenix appeared, like, literally appeared, there was a slight ripple in the air, and he was standing next to some of the ADVENT, and unleashed with shotgun and sword. Bradford got up, and began firing as well. It wasn't as perfect as it could have been, these guys were more armoured than they were expecting, and reacted much quicker and more efficiently than normal ADVENT troops. S took a graze to the shoulder, and Bradford nearly had his head taken off by a Lancer, but Bradford managed to duck, and drove his sword into it instead. Phoenix kept disappearing, then reappearing behind their cover, with a shotgun right to their head. Several resistance fighters were taken down. As the fight was winding down. There was only a few Troopers left, they had no Officer or Lancer support, and there were spread out. The Commander heard a noise behind him, and he quickly shot his feet, dropped the sniper, and drew his swords just in time to see 2 Stun lancers break out of the nearby shrubbery and come charging at him. He ducked under the charging swing, and brought his swords across the chest of the one of them, if not killing it outright, then taking it out of the fight for a good while. He duelled with the other Stun Lancer. It was skilled, but they weren't trained to fight in duels, they were meant to tab at people with rifles, people that engage from range, so fighting someone that's fighting back with equal skill isn't something they can hold against for long, that is, without support. He heard a bark of the alien language, and noticed too late that there was an Officer waiting in ambush as well, and it fired off a single shot, which hit the Commander in the left arm. The shot must have shattered the elbow, because he immediately lost feeling in it completely, and it went limp, he recognised what Lost said would happen when he took a hit that would cause debilitating pain, to block out the pain it just blocked all the synapses leading to it, shutting off all commands to it, and any sensation back, but not blocking the blood flow. As that kicked in, he engaged another Cyberwear he'd gotten. And, moving faster than the Lancer could see, he ducked under a swing, got up inside it's guard, and drove his blade up through the Lancer's chest armour, up into the head. he then tried to yank it out, but found it had gotten wedged in the body somewhere. He felt another impact on his back, and fell tot he ground on top of the Lancer. He flipped himself around as he landed, to see an Officer, with one hand holding it's rifle, and another hand holding the blade of the first Lancer. Before he could get up, the Officer put a foot on his chest, keeping him on the ground, and leaned down to him, holding the blade just above his chest, ready to stun him unconscious. It seemed to struggle with something for a moment, then spoke in broken English through gritted teeth.

"You've been a handful, Commander. But you slipped up. I noticed what was going on the second I stepped out of the Van. I saw your rifle poking up. But I knew it was you, so I let you do your little ambush, and lead my bodyguards here to get you myself. The Elders will be happy. We'll make sure you don't get free again"

"Do you know where you messed up Karl?" The Commander asked

"I am not Karl"

"You used to be"

"I know what your doing"

"What am I doing?"

"Stalling until your friends finish up with the rest of my men and come over to get you"

"Me? No, I'd never"

"Silence. You've been a pain. But you've lost" The Officer that had been Karl drove the stun blade onto his chest, there was a spark of red lightning, and the Commander jerked slightly. But he'd planned for this. One of those cybernetics, was designed to store electricity put into his system. So this exact kind of weapon couldn't knock him out.

"You don't think others can use your own tricks" he mentally activated the signal, and several resistance troops dropped down from the trees with stun weapons, and fired at Karl. He was struck by a half dozen Tasers. But, showing the true ability of his armour and gene-modifications, didn't go down. He swept his arm across the cables connecting the Tasers to the prongs, breaking the circuit, and fired his rifle at the group on full auto, and 2 went down, but the others dropped into cover, and produced Lethal weaponry. Karl turned back to the Commander.

"This isn't the end" he then sprinted off into the forest. The Resistance soldiers fired after him, but didn't pursue. Bradford ran over. "Commander, are you all right?"

He nodded, and looked at his left arm, it was limp and bloody. He looked over at S as she came over.

"Did you do it?" She asked

"Partly"

"Partly?"

"We didn't capture him. But that wasn't the plan"

"You told me that was the plan"

"You had to believe that. The plan was simply to shame him. He keeps going back to the elders with failure, and they'll put less resources into him. Eventually, they'll disband him when he doesn't produce results. We don't need to kill or capture him. We just have to make them loose faith in his abilities"

"I hope you're right"

"I do too"

"Fine" S began gathering her surviving Resistance group and heading down to the caravan to loot what they could.

"Phoenix?"

"Yes Commander" he appeared beside him

"Did you get what you needed"

"Yes. I have planted a bug in their system. It cannot penetrate deep. But it should go unnoticed, and provide us some information on their movements"

"All right. Do you need a ride?"

"I can make my own way"

"See you later then"

"I doubt you will see me Commander" the air rippled, and he disappeared

"Why do they always want a dramatic exit?"

"It is their way. Come on Commander, we should get you back to Zacharie"

"Yeah. Phoenix! Tell Lost I said thanks for the cyber!"

"I doubt he can hear you"

"I don't know, he seems like the hovering type"

Bradford put an arm over his shoulder, and helped him back to the jeep.

"I just hope the others manage to do as well as we did. Not perfect, but it works"

"Alice and Stacy know what they're doing. They'll get it done"

"Yeah"


	11. Chapter 11: Alpha

**"Lock and** load" Alice said as she entered the Lounge, in her armour, and with her rifle on her back, and pistol on her hit.

"What?" William asked

"We're going out. Commander's busy. So I'm taking temporary command until he returns. Roman, Aya, William, Maxim, with me, we're going to the Sky Ranger. Everyone else, get ready, Shen's flying the Avenger to your location"

"What?" Stacy asked. But Alice had already walked out

"Any idea what's going on?" Maxim asked. He'd only been walking around for a week now, and hadn't been on any missions. He had no idea if that's how they normally do it

There were a few moments in which nobody did anything. But it was broken by Aya standing up "Clearly the Commander has some kind of plan. If he has gone himself, it must be important" she then followed Alice out. Everyone that she'd called quickly followed after her to get ready for whatever they were doing. It most certainly wasn't normal.

* * *

 **"Uh. How** do I put this stuff on?" Maxim asked as he looked at the armour in front of him. The other's were confidently strapping it on, but he had no idea what they were doing.

"Here" Aya said, coming over and helping him to put it on. She'd finished putting her armour on before Maxim had even found his.

"Thanks. I might have mind powers, but I need a manual for this"

"There we are" Aya said as she finished putting the last of his armour on him

"Thanks again... Where's my gun"

Aya rolled her eyes, but smiled and pointed towards a rack with weapons on it.

Maxim smiled and ran over to it. Looking for his gun. He found a sniper rifle, and went to pick it up when Alice put a hand on his shoulder "Not that one. That's Ash's" she pointed further along the rack "That's your gun"

Maxim looked over at what she was pointing at, and saw a regular rifle. "Uh, no. I'm a sniper. Ask Aya"

"The Commander told me you'd react like this. You may prefer sniping, but you psionic abilities lose their power after a range, so you'll be more useful at medium range with an assault rifle"

"This is bullshit. I'm a sniper"

"Well we only have the one sniper rifle, and it's Ash's. You'll take the rifle and you'll like it"

"Ugh, fine" Maxim took the assault rifle, and put it on his back. It fell to the floor. "God damnit. How do I turn this thing on"

William and Roman watched Maxim struggle with his equipment "We are so boned" William said "He can't even use his stuff"

"He doesn't need to" Roman replied

"What?"

"Although he may be making a big deal of what weapon he gets, he probably won't use it much"

"What, he doesn't shoot"

"He won't need to. I talked to Mr Ducan a couple times. He can do just as much damage to ADVENT with his mind as he can with his gun"

"Damn"

"Indeed. He is very powerful, he just needs to learn how to use all his abilities again. He will quickly grow to outstrip us in power"

"That's, kinda depressing in a way"

"Indeed"

* * *

 **Maxim slid** down the rope, and promptly fell on his ass "Fucking puddle" he cursed quietly

Aya deftly landed next to him, and gave him a hand up

"You look like a baby animal in a documentary" Alice said "You know, the one that you're looking at like. He's not going to make it"

"Gee, thanks" Maxim said "I could Soulfire you right now you know"

"Soulfire?"

"My damaging ability. I name them alright" he kicked a rock on the ground and looked down as he mumbled "Makes me feel like a game character"

"Welcome to the Nerd Brigade" Roman said

That made Maxim smile

"All right. Come on. We got a facility to raid" Alice said, a she took a step to the edge of the plateu they were on. They were at the edge of a plateu. Just ahead of them was a small building with a small wall around it. Just ahead of that building was a train parked in front an even larger building. "Head for the roof. We'll get a good view of the facility"

She dropped down, and ran over to the fence. "Hax. Turret on the roof"

"Oh goodie" William dropped down next to her while the others joined them "NOCLIP, I choose you" His GREMLIN hovered up and flew over to the turret "She's mine" He declared, looking at a datapad in front of him. "Sectoid and one of those, Mutons is what you called them, right Aya"

"Yes"

"Valkyrie, stay on the ground, your shotgun get's better range down here. Everyone else to the roof"

William, Roman, and Alice climbed up the ladder, while Aya ran across the courtyard to the fence on the other side. Maxim didn't even think, and just ran across with Aya.

"Vampire?" Alice asked when she didn't see him come up behind her from the ladder

"I'm with Valkyrie" he whispered into his coms.

"What th-" Alice stopped herself "Fine. Wait for Roman to start it"

A few seconds later, a grenades flew from the roof, and landed right between the Muton and Sectoid. Followed quickly by a barrage of bullets from Alice, the Sectoid was already running, and got behind a tree without getting shot, but the Muton didn't react quite as fast, and took a burst to the head, and dropped. But the Sectoid's speed only saved it for about a second, because when it reached the tree, Aya was already there with her sword out, and in one quick flick of her wrist, separated the aliens head from it's neck. Maxim looked up at the Turret that William had hacked, and raised his gun, and fired a burst into the side of it.

"The fuck you doing Vamp?" William asked

"They have reactive firewalls, you'll be kicked out of the system fairly quickly, we should destroy it before that happens"

"How the fuck you know that?"

"I have no idea" Maxim replied

"Everyone move up to the Train" Alice said "Kill that Turret as we go" Those on the roof hurdled the railing, and rolled as they landed. Aya and Maxim headed for the train as well. Maxim walked backwards, and put another burst into the turret. It sparked and went dead, the gun part dropping and pointing at the ground as it died.

"Turret on Roof" Alice said as they got onto the train

"NOCLIP, go" his GREMLIN flew towards the turret "And Slee-"

He was interrupted by the bark of Aya's shotgun, as she fired from extreme range of the shotgun, and destroyed the turret in a single shot

"Aw" William said

"Officer, MEC, and, it looks like an armoured Trooper, but it's wearing white" Roman said as he took out his greande launcher, and fired to the left. The grenade landed right as the 3 got into their positions, and destroyed their cover. Alice fired off a burst, catching the Officer in the chest, and dropping it. Aya got out her sword and ran over, slashing at the armoured trooper, there was a screech and sparks as her blade sliced across the armour. Maxim thrust a ball of purple energies at Aya, and she quickly spun with the blade, and spinning all the way around in a 360, then used the momentum of the spin, to throw her sword into the MEC in a perfect spearing throw. The blade went straight through the 'head' and the MEC, and it deactivated and fell to the floor. She then ran over, pulled her sword out of the MEC's head, and got back behind a box on the platform for cover. She did all that in the time it took William to pop up from cover and fire a burst into the Armoured Trooper., catching it right in the neck between it's armoured plates, and dropping it. They all turned to look at Aya as she dropped back behind the box. Even for her, that was fast. She'd just run over, sliced across the armour of one, took out the MEC in a single sword thrust, retrieved the sword, and got back into cover, in the time it took for William to shoot a single guy. Only Maxim and Aya knew had she'd been able to react so fast.

"You are indeed the Valkyrie" was all Roman said

"Anyway, let's carry on. Get to the door" Alice said

They formed up at the door, reloading their guns as they went. Aya and Alice went on either side of the door in breach position. Roman was behind a fence, just a bit away from the door. Maxim was behind a lamp post. And William was behind an outcropping of the wall next to the door.

"Breach" Alice called, and Aya opened the door and move inside. The door was double-sized, but it slides, so Aya opened the entire door. Inside was 1 large room. The middle of it was filled with racks of tubes with a green fluid inside, humanoid forms could be seen. But that sight didn't last long, as the racks slid down into the floor. As they slid down, it revealed a small room on the far side of the facility. Which had a device from floor to ceiling. In the middle was a glass tube, and in side of that was a small vial, about the length of a persons forearm, and a couple inches in diameter. Aya lead the way inside. As she stepped inside, she quickly ducked behind a console "MEC and 2 Troopers, far side"

Roman brought out his grenade launcher, and launched an acid bomb, his last explosive device, towards the two. There was a soft popping sound as it burst open, followed by a loud hissing, and some loud screaming as the Troopers were melted inside of their armour. Aya brought up her shotgun, and fired a shell into the MEC's torso, breaking straight through the melting armour. It fell into the pool of acid burning into the floor.

"Move in" Alice said. Maxim went to the side, along a walkway above the green liquid on the bottom. As he moved up, he saw what could best be described as snake-women through the window at the back. 1 'ran' to the left. The other 2 slithered around, 1 of them staying outside the door, the other coming in, and getting behind sa pillar, after going through the acid pool.

Maxim heard a whistle, and looked over at Aya, she nodded towards the Snake-women, and began running over to them. He knew what she meant, and brought a hand to the purple orb of light, throwing it towards Aya as she reached the edge of the pool of Acid, and jumped, kicked off of the wall next to it, and propelled herself across, she landed and rolled, coming out of the roll just outside the door of the facility, and dragged her blade across the aliens chest, just as the purple light hit her, and her reactions sped up. Quickly she noticed that what had meant to cut the alien in half, had only slightly cut across it's stomach as it dodged backwards. She jumped, and flipped backwards, sheathing the sword during the backflip, and taking out her shotgun, bringing it up as she landed, and fired. The alien was completely unprepared for the speed and agility of the move, and was just staring at her, dumb-struck, as she fired a shell right into it's face. Shredding it's head and torso, along with the bits of flesh along it's head, like the 'crown' of a king cobra, the upper part of it's body just turning to mulch as the pellets ripped through it. She heard a noise inside, and recognised that the others were firing at the one inside, but didn't hear any death screams. She noticed the other one slithering towards her from the left, and she jumped up, and grabbed the railing, pulling herself over the ledge onto the dip in the roof, only up 1 storey. As the alien came around the corner, Aya levelled her shotgun, and took it's head off as well. Meanwhile inside, the alien had got down under cover, and all their shots had either hit the pillar, or the creature had dodged the few that got around it. As the hail of fire stopped for a brief second, the alien had slid out from around the pillar, coiled back, and , lunging it's head forwards, had shot out it's tongue, which lashed around Roman, and pulled him straight through the railing he was behind, over the goo, and right in front of the alien, where it released the tongue, and wrapped it's coils around him, and began constricting. It didn't get to constrict him for long, as Maxim looked at it, and reached over his shoulder, throwing some purple glow at the alien, it struck the alien, and it released Roman, and dropped into the floor. Burns and cuts appearing along it's body as it fell.

As the viper fell, Aya stepped back inside.

"Everyone form up, I'll get the vial" Alice said, as she began heading over to the room with the device inside.

Maxim headed over to Roman "You alright Boomer?"

"Yeah. That's a nice move. Whoa watch your step" He exclaimed as he noticed Maxim walk straight through a pool of acid that was left on the ground that still hadn't burned away, but instead formed a shallow pool in the metal floor. As Maxims foot entered the pool, a purple glow spread up to his knee. He lifted his foot back out, and there wasn't even a slight burn on the armour "What?"

"I've been learning how to create a permanent barrier. It can't block bullets yet. But it can stop environmental hazards from hurting me. Fire, acid, poison, that stuff"

"That'll be useful"

"I thought so" Maxim said with a smile

"No radiation. No significant energy readings of any kind. Whatever it is, it's safe to handle" Dr Shen said over the coms as Alice scanned the vial with a device that was essentially a supped up Geiger counter. Alice put the counter away, then punched the glass. It cracked, but didn't break, and pain flared in her fist, she shook it, she hadn't punched it hard enough to break anything, but it hurt like hell. She brought out her pistol, and flipped it around, then hammered on the glass with the handle on the gun until the glass broke. She then reached it, and wiggled it free of it's housing.

"I've got the vial" Alice said a she slipped it into a holster on her waist.

"We've got company" William said as a Flare dropped outside, between them and the evac site. Everyone formed up by the window to get a view on what was dropping. A MEC, and 2 Troopers hopped down. The 2 Troopers barely got 3 steps before Alice unleashed a hail into them, and dropped the 2 of them as they tried to run. The MEC lasted a bit longer, but Maxim put a burst into it's torso, followed closely by a shotgun blast to its 'head', and the MEC fell to the ground sparking.

"Aww" William said "I wanted a pet"

"Let's get to evac" Alice said

"One moment" Roman said, as he took out an X4 charge, and placed it on the wall, tapping a few buttons, then turned "We've got 5 minutes before this place explodes, lets get going"

They moved outside to the evac zone, and Firebrand brought the Skyranger over them, dropped down the ropes, and the were pulled back up, and began heading off. They wouldn't be able to catch up with the Avenger, which was probably already in Europe. But they could head to the rendezvous point.

"Can I have a look at that?" Maxim asked, pointing at the vial

"Make sure you don't drop it" Alice said, handing it to him

Maxim took the vial, and switched on his psionic vision, the one trick he'd managed to keep from his psionics before, and had a look at the vial. It didn't look any different. No psionic energy readings, no hidden things in it. Just a vial of green goo, maybe a slight purple, but that could just be from him holding it, it was difficult to tell, maybe some very very minor absorbing of psionic energies, but that's about it. He handed it back to Alice "I don't see anything psionic in it"

Alice took it back "Hopefully Tygan will be able to find something about it. Apparently the aliens were using it from something, and taking this will be a blow to them"


	12. Chapter 12: Beta

**Ash sat** behind the wheel of the jeep. They'd landed in the UK, and had to take a jeep from the cargo bay to the facility, the avenger was a bit too big to make a stealth approach. Stacy was in the passenger seat, Pyro and Sean were in the back seat, and Harold was sitting in the back, where you'd usually put bags when you were going somewhere. They couldn't take the road, as ADVENT would stop them, so they had to go through the forest. Ash was the best driver, so he had to be the one to weave between trees to get them there. Stacy directed him with a GPS device. And told him to stop just under a mile away, still in the trees. Ash parked it, and left the keys in the ignition. If things went south and they had to evac quick, he didn't want to end up spending those few vital seconds getting the key in.

They advanced through the forest a bit, before coming upon a small wooden hut. "Legs check it out" Stacy said.

Sean dashed ahead, and checked through the windows, then went to the door, opened it, and immediately closed it again. He gagged for a second, then turned to them "I don't think ADVENT likes people living too close to their facilities"

"Ash, take the roof. Everyone else, head forward" Stacy said, motioning towards a wooden ladder leaning against the building.

Ash went over, and climbed up the ladder. Moving up to the edge of the roof, and laying down, resting his sniper rifle against the roof to steady to further. He looked at the road ahead, and whispered into his com "Officer, Stunny, and a Trooper in big white armour, looks like their patrolling the road. Heading right"

"Pyro, take the Stun Lancer. Ash, get the Trooper. I'll take the Officer" Stacy said. Ash lined up his shot "Open fire" Ash pulled the trigger, taking the unsuspecting White Trooper straight in the back of the neck, through the weak spot in the armour. Just as Pryo and Stacy opened fire as well. The Stun Lancer got mowed down, and the Officer took a burst to the chest, and stumbled towards cover, but took a pistol shot to the face, as Stacy whipped out her pistol to take him out and conserve ammunition in her primary. She personified efficiency, no wonder her nickname had become Soldier.

"Sean, continue scouting" Stacy said as she put her pistol away, and took her rifle back in a 2 handed-grip. Sean continued advancing across the road, he got halfway across before he ducked down behind the barrier "2 Sectoids, and a, snake-lady, I guess". Ash looked over at where he'd been looking when he ducked, and sure enough walking across was 2 Sectoids, accompanied by something that was a cross between a woman and a snake.

"Rage, Legs, get the Sectoids, everyone else, focus fire the snake, it seems agile" Stacy said as she lined up a shot with the Viper, and pumped a burst shot towards it, sure enough, it proved to be very agile, and managed to move at the split second it needed to avoid a large portion of the burst, though it still took a graze across it's arm. But as it dodged that shot, it lined it's head up perfectly in Ash's sights, and he took a shot, driving a bullet straight between it's eyes. It dropped to the ground in a spray of blood.

While Ash killed the Viper, Harold and Sean were crossing the distance between them and the Sectoids. Harold brought out his sword, and in one quick swing, before the Sectoid even knew what was coming, took it's head clean from it's neck, yellow-ish blood coating the front of his armour as it sprayed from the severed arteries. Sean wasn't quite as efficient, though just as effective. As he approached his Sectoid, he whistled, bringing it's attention to him, it started to hiss at him, and was about to bring up its wrist-mounted plasma weapon, but Sean jumped, and connected his mechanical foot with it's jaw, drop-kicking it in the face. There was an audible crack, and its jaw was driven back into its skull, and its neck snapped backwards and broke, and the Sedtoid dropped to the floor. Sean landed on his other foot, and hoped behind a nearby car, while Harold put his back behind a lamp-post.

Pyro moved up through the chaos, levelling his Machine Gun, and firing as he advanced. He'd noticed a couple turrets on the roof, and notified the others in the only way he could. He fired almost half of his clip into it as he advanced, shredding the entire top of the machine. Harold noticed him firing, and moved over, brining up his shotgun, and damaging the other, while Stacy brought up her rifle, and finished it off. Both of the turrets were deactivated before they'd had a chance to line up any shots.

Stacy looked up, and saw 3 entrances, 2 were on the ground, but were small, single doors, the third was up a floor, accessible by a ladder build into the wall, but was a double-door, and would afford them better firing positions inside. Where one of the would have to find a suitable place to put the X4 charge to destroy the facility. "Everyone, upstairs, double doors" she ordered, while heading over to the ladder.

Ash dropped down from the hut he was on, he wouldn't have sight inside, and moved forward, bringing up the grappling launcher built into his armour's wrist, Shen had called it the 'Spider Suit' when she'd given it to him. He just hoped it worked properly. He lined it up, and fired it towards the railing, it caught, and he reeled it in, pulling himself across the gap, and he grabbed onto the railing and pulled himself up when he hit the wall.

They were forming up around the door when Harold looked to the side and said "MEC, Lancer" and sprinted over, jumping over the railing, and landing right in front of the lancer. The Lancer had its sword drawn, and had been running towards them, but it hadn't been expecting that move, and Harold brought down his sword as he landed. Even with the momentum of the fall, most people wouldn't have been able to bring that sword past the sternum. But combined with Harold Stim-Augmented strength, he drove the sword down as he fell, and cut the Lancer clean in 2. The 2 halves fell apart in a wash of orange blood. The front of Harolds armour was bright orange, and the back remained it's normal dark red. The others had heard his shout, and Sean and Alice both turned their rifles to the MEC, while Ash brought up his pistol as he climbed over the railing. The combination of 2 Rifles on burst fire, and the punch of the revolver, broke apart its armour, destroyed its electronics. The MEC fell backwards in a spray of sparks.

"Found a door down here" Harold said as he noticed a door, and went over to it. It was a metal door, and had a panel next to it. They knew the codes to open the doors, but he never bothered with that. He lashed out with his fist, and broke the control panel, and, sure enough, the door slid open. They really should update their security. The doors on the Avenger would lock down if you broke a control panel.

While Harold moved inside through the ground door, the others moved in through the balcony door. Pyro, Sean and Stacy going behind the railing, Ash staying by the door, and reloading his sniper. Harold approached a pillar with the X4 charges. Ash noticed movement, and his training kicked in, he fired a shot, and heard a hiss of pain. Stacy heard the shot, and turned, seeing one of the snake-women drop down from the roof, and pumped a burst into it. She then did a quick calculation. ADVENT always travelled in groups of 2 or 3. She took out a grenade, and tossed it lightly. It rolled right up against the wall. "Cover" she called as it detonated. Taking out the ground in ground in front of them, the wall, and the roof. A green, thin shape fell past, and there was a sickening thud as it connected with the ground.

Ash reacted extremely quickly, and took a second shot as the final snake dropped from the roof, it hadn't been standing on the part Stacy had destroyed. He pumped another shot, no scope, towards it, but those snakes were fast, and it twisted in an unusual way, and the shot grazed its side. It slithered over to a cover, and brought up its rifle. But didn't get a chance to fire, as Sean ran over, and drop-kicked it in the chest. The snake flew backwards over the railing from the force of the kick, and there was a loud thud, and a crash. Ash looked over and saw it lying on its back on top of a, now, crush car. It didn't move, but he put a pistol shot into its head to be safe, then turned to Sean and nodded his thanks. Harold was taking out the X4 charge from his waits, and attached it to a pillar in front of him, when he saw something long and green fall from the platform above him, he lashed out with a fist, and there was a loud crunch as he snapped its neck with the powerful punch. When he brought the hand back to finish inputting the numbers, he noticed that his gauntlet was deformed slightly. He needed to have Shen reinforce the armour on his fist further, there was a leak of blood from the joints, but he input the numbers with the hand anyways. He set it to 10 minutes. There was another crash, and another object fell, he almost lashed out at it again, when he noticed a gas mask. He held back his fist, and turned to see Pyro land on his ass, hard. He groaned something through his mask, but got back up. He nodded towards the pillar. "10 minutes" Harold replied to the implied question. Pyro nodded, and began heading for one of the doors.

"We're done here" Stacy said "Back to the Jeep".

They began heading back. Ash noticed a flare drop down on the roof, and alerted the others "Reinforcements"

"Just go" Stacy said "That place is going to blow, and we want to be far away"

They redoubled their pace, and ran for the woods.

* * *

 **XJ-298 dropped** out of the transport. He saw the XCOM operatives fleeing into the forest, and opened up a com-link. "Commander. XCOM operatives are fleeing into the forest. Should we pursue?"

"Negative" came the response "They'll have a vehicle. Can you disarm the device?"

XJ-298 turned to ST-823 "Find the explosives" ST-823 saluted, and headed down.

A few seconds later he replied over the coms "8 minutes remaining. X4 charge"

"Forget it" KA-001, their Commander, said over the comm link "It will take too long to disarm it. Gather what you can, then run for the forest, you'll need 5 minutes at least to get out of the blast radius"

"Affirmative" XJ-298 replied. "SL-026, gather the information. ST-823, collect some of the subjects, you have 3 minutes, then rendezvous at 0-2732-36782" giving the coordinates of a nearby clearing in the forest.

He looked towards where the XCOM operatives were fleeing, and performed a quick scan of the last one into the forest. He uploaded the data into the psionic network, and reply came within 2 seconds, the operatives DNA was similar to that of a 'Masambe Digkale, which the network identified as the one that had disrupted the plans of the first wave of the Elders. He sent the data directly to KA-001 'I believe I have discovered something"

After a few seconds KA-001 replied "Affirmative. We have taken a hit today. Their Commander was more cunning than I thought. We have kept up the Anvil long enough. XJ-298, return to base at once. We shall unleash the Hammer"

A glimmer of emotion returned to XJ-298 in that moment. He was pleased that they'd finally be brining the fight to XCOM themselves, rather than performing defensive or clean-up operations. But he quickly pushed the feeling down. If he allowed it to surface too much he would have to report for re-conditioning He turned towards the forest, and began heading for it. He had spent too long on the roof. They had to rendezvous. They were going to unleash the Berserkers, and he had to be there to see them in action. He allowed himself a moment of satisfaction at the thought, but clamped it back down before it could alert the network. Although they were allowed some freedom of emotion, even they had a limit to it.

* * *

 **The Commander** limped back onto the Avenger. They'd had to wait a few hours for the Avenger to return, and in that time, some of the cybernetics had burnt out, and he began to feel the pain of his injuries. He kept his arm still. He'd been right, the shot had just shattered his elbow. He had to hold it up with his other hand or it just flopped there useless. As he got on, Zacharie, the medic on the ship, came over, and helped him towards the med-bay. Zacharie was short, with buzz-cut blonde hair. He had surprisingly little to do on the ship. It wasn't often that operatives returned with more than flesh wounds. A lot of the time, he'd just have to make sure they stayed in bed as a precaution, or was assigned to clearing out debris, or assisting in construction on the Avenger with the rest of the Engineering team.

A few hours later, and the Commander was on one of the beds in the Infirmary. Pyro was across from him. Apparently he'd broken his tail bone after falling through the floor, which had been weakened by Stacy throwing a grenade. He'd burst out laughing when he'd heard it, since although Zacharie explained it properly, all he could hear was that he broke his butt after falling through the ground. The images of that distracted him from Zacharie hooking him up to machinery to look after his arm and other scrapes. Zacharie had gone out for a few minutes to collect some supplies, when Alice came in. She still looked absolutely adorable with the glasses-hat-ponytail combination. She saw him, ran over, and hugged him. It would have been a really sweet moment, but when she ran over to hug him, she bumped his arm, and moved it as she hugged him.

"Ow ow ow ow ow ow" the Commander said as she bumped the arm up with her shoulder.

She quickly back up "Sorry, sorry"

The Commander chuckled "It's alright. Just hug from this side for a couple days" he said, motioning towards his right side where he didn't have any broken bones

Alice laughed a little, and tucked a stray hair behind her ear. Had he mentioned she looked adorable? "I'm so glad your back, Commander"

"So am I" he sighed a little as he remembered the big stack of paper son his desk that he'd have to fill out with his right arm now. He needed to get a type-writer or something, his hand-writing was bad enough with his dominant hand.

"You alright Commander?" Alice asked as she noticed his sigh

"Just remembering all the paper work I've got to do. How did team Alpha and Beta do?" The Commander said, trying to change topics.

"Great. I sent the vial from the Blacksite to Tygan and Shen, though they say they're going to need a long time to figure it out, and potentially a specifically designed facility for it"

'New Facility. Great, even more paperwork and resources' the Commander thought

"And Stacy said their Facility went sky-high. We did encounter 2 new types of ADVENT though. One's a heavily armed trooper wearing white, and another's a Snake-Woman. Tygan said their DNA is similar to that of the 'Thin Men' from before, just without the human element. Though I argue they must have some. Snakes don't have breasts"

The Commander chuckled at that comment "He was trained by ADVENT. Maybe their snakes have boobs"

"Snakes are reptiles they don't-" Alice stopped herself, pinching her nose to prevent herself going on on a topic the Commander knew full well she was right on. He seemed to enjoy baiting her to techno-babble about random topics she knew about.

Alice pinched her nose to stop herself from techno-babbling. How did this girl look adorable in everything she did. Even when she was doing her action to get herself to not babble she looked cute.

"Fine" she said. Then she reached behind her "Commander, I believe this belongs to you" she brought out the Art of War by Sun Tsu again

He chuckled again. "It looks like we're both trying to get rid of it onto the other" but he reached out his good hand, took the book, and placed to down on the table beside him. He liked that book. He'd already read it 3 times, but he still enjoyed reading through it whenever he wasn't swimming in paper-work. However, while Alice leaned down with the book, she went with his taking of the book, and leaned down, and kissed him on the cheek.

"I'm really glad you came back Commander" she said, then hugged him again, on his non-injured side, and began heading out of the room.

"Ryan" the Commander called after her. Alice turned around

"Ryan?"

"My name. Call me Ryan"

Alice smiled a little to herself, then turned and continued walking out of the room "I'll see you later then, Ryan

Alice walked back to her room. She couldn't wipe the smile off of her face the entire way. When she reached her room, she got in, closed the door, then jumped and punched the air. The Commander had finally told her his name.

The Commander turned to Pyro "You can't talk right?"

Pyro grunted something back in response

"Well, either way, tell anyone what just happened, and I'm taking that gas mask away"

Pyro shrugged in a, that's fair, motion.

* * *

 **So much shit is about to go down. I'm both looking forward to, and dreading when I start reaching the end of this story. Because there will be much Drama, Action, and of course, a little Bloodshed (I wonder if any of you will get that reference). But then I'll have to end the story. Well, that's still quote a bit off. The first one reach, 26, 27 parts, around that. I don't remember exactly, I could check but, meh, and this one is meant to be longer. So it won't end for a while. Anyway, thank you for reading, I hope you stick with me for the rest of this story.**


	13. Chapter 13: Down-Time

**William stood** in Stacy's room. Alice had asked him to try and get confirmation of what they thought. He'd agreed, reluctantly. He had no idea how he was going to this. And he'd been standing awkwardly in Stacy's room for about 10 minutes now. It still amazed him to see her room. In the field, she was so military and efficient, you'd expect her room to be perfectly tidy, bed done up military style, but that couldn't be further from the truth. There was clothes scattered on the floor, the bed was unmade, and there were several posters on the wall for T.V shows or movies, he didn't know which. He wasn't normally a clean guy, his own room was a mess of exposed cabling from the wall from when he'd improved the power output to his computer, resulting in the few people that ever came in his room, tripping up like he'd placed trip wires, but other than that his room was reasonably clean. But, in Stacy's room, he began to feel like he needed to clean it up. If she didn't show up soon, he'd end up cleaning, and what else could make this meeting more awkward, then coming into your room to find a hacker cleaning you room. Just finding a hacker standing there awkward was bad enough.

A minute or so later, just as he was about to give in to his need to clean, a compulsion he'd never had before, the door opened, and Stacy stepped inside. She stopped in the doorway as she noticed him, waited a second, hesitating, then stepped inside, and closed the door "You're a bit forward" she said cockily

William flustered, of all the responses he'd expected for her finding him, that wasn't something he'd have counted on in a million years. "I-uh-I-ah" he stammered "I-that's, that's, what"

Stacy laughed as his awkwardness "Hey, it's fine, I don't judge" she sat down on the bed, and pat the spot next to her "Sit" she commanded

William hesitated for a second, then sat down

"There we go, all cozy, now, what did you want to talk to me about?"

"Well, uh, that" he responded, pointing over at the photo on her dresser

"I don't think we're quite at meeting families yet"

"What, no, I, the man in the picture, the big African guy, is that, Masambe Digkale?"

"Yes, boxer-dad was called Masambe" she raised an eyebrow at him

" _The_ Masambe Digkale?"

"The?"

"You know, hero of XCOM Masambe"

She was quiet for a moment, before she replied "I don't know. Look, I'll tell you what happened, because your clearly worried about that. Like, 21 years ago, when the aliens first arrived. Boxer-dad was away, he was finishing up his last tour with the military before he left"

William nodded, this was fitting with Alice had told him about Masambe

"Then, the aliens attacked. We were at home, so we didn't get grabbed by one of those, abductor cube things, whatever those were. But we didn't even know anything was happening, then these small grey guys with massive heads broke through out door, burned it off its hinges. I was, what, 8, 9, at the time. I had no idea what was going on. Zak was upstairs, doing his homework, but I was in the living room with Dad. The aliens broke through the door, and dad jus went military mode, it was like he'd been preparing for it forever. He flipped over the coffee table, and pulled me behind it. He then pressed something on the bottom of it, and a pistol slid out. he fired a shot blind over the table, and there was some screech. A few seconds later he looked up, and I heard a scream from upstairs. He didn't hesitate, just grabbed me, and ran out the back door. The rest is a blur. Next thing I remember dad hands me over to this man who called himself, Mr Clean. I have no idea what happened next. I was jumped around a lot, never stayed in the same house for more than a week. Next thing I know, I'm 12 and Mr Clean drops me off at this resistance haven, and I just grew up there. So, my dad might be the Masambe your talking about, and if you think he is, I'll take your word for it, all I know is that I lose my brother, and both my fathers in the same day" She took a deep breath, and the fell back onto the bed

A few seconds of silence passed

"I'm sorry" William said "You probably didn't want to have to remember that"

"It's fine" Stacy replied she looked at William, who was still sitting awkwardly on the edge of the bed "Come on, lets make trash angels" she then energetically got up, went over to one of the piles of random junk on the floor, and just face-planted into it, then began moving her arms and legs, spreading the junk away from here, like she was making a snow angel

She looked up, to see him still sitting there, and rolled onto her side, resting in the 'paint me like one of your French girls' pose "Or would you rather hack me" she said in a sultry voice

William blushed, but was beginning to get it, she felt a bit uncomfortable, so a way for her to deal with that, was to make him uncomfortable. He had no idea where this confidence came from, but he just replied "If I were to ask you out. Would your answer be the same as your answer to this question?"

She looked at him for a few seconds, apparently thinking, before she broke into a huge grin "You're the smoothest nerd I've ever seen"

"I don't think the word smooth and nerd have ever been used in that context in 1 sentence before"

"Damn, are you my appendix?"

"What?"

"Because I don't understand how you work, but this feeling in my stomach makes me want to take you out"

Thus proceeded about half an hour of bad nerdy pickup lines, each nerdier than the last.

"Anyway are we actually going to do this. Or we just going to trade pickup lines"

"Uh"

"Woah, where'd all that confidence go? Hey, no pressure if you don't want to"

"No, no, I want to. I just, I completely forgot to go tell Alice"

"Alice?"

"She wanted me to check if Masambe really was your father. I'll be real quick" He got up, and jogged down to Alice's room.

Stacy watched him go with a smile. He was such a geek, but he was her geek.

* * *

 **Alice heard** William's story, and watched him jog back out. She checked the details with what she knew about Masambe. A lot of details fit. A brother named Zak, and the situation fit with what had been found. The brother had been found dead upstairs, and John, Masambe's partner, had been found, behind a table, dead, an empty pistol in his hand. But one detail didn't fit, the reports said Stacy Digkale's body had been found about a mile from the house, it seemed that she'd run, but had tripped in the forest outside, and fell down a hill, breaking her neck. But then she had also said there had been a, Mr Clean, so Miss Lost and her group were involved, they'd be able to fake that easily. But then why had they gone through so much effort just to save 1 young girl. Truly they were a strange group, and apparently had immense foresight. She collected up the data, and saved it. She'd take it to the Comm-Ryan, she'd take it to Ryan. She still felt a little giddy whenever she thought of his actual name. She'd take it to Ryan once he got out of the Med-bay.

* * *

 **Roman finished** his diary. He collected up the 3 small books that contained it, and wrapped a rubber band around them to keep them together. He also got a small bit of paper, and wrote 'Commander, from Roman. Please read it all the way before you make any decisions about me'. Slipped the paper under the rubber band, and made his way to the Commanders room. He wouldn't be there, the Commander was in the Med-Bay. But he was counting on that. He'd let the Commander get back to his room, find them there, and read them on his own time. As he walked he held the books in one hand, his other hand opening doors, climbing ladders, and scratching the scar on the back of his head, a bit of a nervous tick he'd had since he'd gotten the scar. He'd prepared a bit of a speech to give to Bradford when he would no-doubt interrupt him from entering the Commander's quarters, but, fortunately, Bradford wasn't there, and the technicians in the room were busy at the consoles, and didn't look up at him. He climbed up the steps, and entered the Commanders room. It was smaller than he'd been expecting, still bigger than their rooms, but a lot of the space was taken up by a desk, overflowing with papers. He walked over to the desk, then thought better of it, he didn't want Bradford or anyone else finding it. He went over to the bed, lifted up the pillow, and put the books under it. He'd find them in time, though a part of him hoped he never found it, he knew he had to inform the Commander of this eventually. He'd accept whatever the Commander decided was coming for him. He went back to his room, and made it back without encountering anyone.

* * *

 **"Hey, Aya"** Maxim turned to her

"Yes?"

"I need to ask you something"

"Go ahead"

"Well, I need to tell you something as well. You know when I, used Inspiration on you during the Blacksite mission?"

"Yes, you enhanced my reflexes so I could act even faster than normally, or something like that, right"

"I think so. Anyway, while I was doing that, I felt, I don't know how to describe it"

"Go on" Aya sat up, she seemed intrigued now

"Well, I don't know, and I haven't checked anything, so I could be completely misreading something" Maxim said quickly "But, well, it seemed, there was some... Alteration, I guess, in your brain somewhere"

"Alteration?"

"Yes"

"What kind?"

"I don't know. I only got a brief glimpse during that, but, something was defiantly different"

"What kind of difference"

"I can't say. I don't think it's anything bad, I don't think ADVENT put a chip in you or something"

"Is there a way you can check?"

"Maybe"

"Do it"

"I can't"

"Why not?"

"I don't know how to properly yet. I've been practising with Alex how to, enter something else's mind. take over their mind, mind control kinda thing"

"And?"

"Well, once I know how to do that, I could go into your head properly, and see if I could find out what's different, but-"

"Just say it Vampire"

"Right, well, I'd need some training in-mission with it. If I mess up, it could easily kill the person I do it on, and I'd rather not accidently explode your head"

"Understandable" Aya laid back down

"So, are you alright?"

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"Well, I just told you you have something different in your brain, and need to mind control you to find out what"

"If it's something different in my brain, then I've lived with it for 20 years while protecting you from ADVENT"

"Yeah" Maxim hung his head

"But-" she put a finger under his chin, and brought him up to look at her "I also trust that, when you feel you can do it, you'll be able to figure out what it is, and get out without killing me. I trust you and your abilities"

Maxim smiled "You're my Valkyrie-"

"And you're my Vampire" Aya replied, finishing off the phrase they'd started using.

Maxim laid back down "One more thing"

"Yes?"

"I love you"

Aya was silent for a moment, then looked him in the eye "I could return that phrase, but we both know that love isn't really a thing I do"

"I know"

"Then why do you place me in a position where social conventions tell me to repeat a phrase I do not feel"

Maxim smiled "Because I like making you get all physiological explanationy"

"That's not even a word"

"Nope"

They both smiled, and turned to face each other

"I do, though" Maxim said

"And I care for you Vampire"

"Good enough for me"

* * *

 **Harold stood** in the training room, once again beating the stuffing out of a dummy designed to be able to take mag-bullets with minimal damage. He ripped the head off with his hands, and threw the head all the way across the room, where it struck the wall with enough force to dent the metal. Shen practically had these things going on an assembly line, once it became clear how fast Harold would chew through them (literally on a couple occasions). He drove a fist through its torso, and out the back, then wrenched his hand back out. The dummy was little more than a few shredded bits of material clinging to its base now. He was about to go and get another one, when he heard a grunt from the doorway, he turned to see Pyro walking towards him. Harold dropped his handful of stuffing, and turned towards the man "Hi Pyro. Can I help you?"

Pyro kept walking until he was right in front of him, then did something completely unexpected, he reached up, and undid the latches holding his gas mask on. He then took the mask off, and looked at Harold.

Harold had been expecting many things, an ADVENT soldier, a burned and mangled face, he even would have been prepared for a Muton to be looking back at him, but this was something he never expected. Looking back at him, was a Mexican man with a short beard and brown hair and eyes, and a bald head. He opened his mouth, and revealed a tongue that seemed to have been cut off near the base. And he mumbled out "Loo-Iez San-ti-ah-go"

"Loiz Santiago?" Harold asked

Pyro nodded, and put his gas mask back on, and began to walk off

"Why did you tell me that?" Harold asked as he walked off

Pyro turned back, and his voice was even more muffled by the gas mask, but it sounded something like "Tohay is ood day to eveal ecrets" then he walked off. Anyone else would have stood their thinking for a few minutes, but Harold didn't have that luxury, after a few seconds, the hunt-pain returned, and pushed all thoughts of Pyro from his mind, he needed to find another dummy to destroy.

* * *

 **The Commander** lay in the med-bay, reading the Art of War. He was rather enjoying his stay. He didn't have to fill out paper works right now. Bradford was handling that for him. Though he still had to handle strategic matters, but he could do those all days. He'd had talks with the Chairman, who finally had something nice to say about operation Sun (Named after the tactician who had given him such wonderful quotes), and how it had worked, and put ADVENT on the back heel. He'd had a couple talks with Miss Lost and some resistance leaders, and had lined out some more plans he had. Now that they had played their strength card, they had to roll with it as much as they could. They were driving their punch home, damaging as much of ADVENT's supplies as they could before they called the bluff and retaliated, and they'd retaliate hard.

"Commander" Shen came into the Med-bay

The Commander put his book back down on the table next to him "Hi Shen. What's up?"

"Inez finished the Skulljack" she said, holding up the gauntlet that would create the blades of light that would allow them to hack into the ADVENT network

"Great. We can jack some skulls"

"Who am I giving it to?"

"Lets see" he thought for a second "Aya or Harold would make sense, they'll be up close and personal anyway. But, it'll be like hacking a computer?"

"Like hacking into a chip in a supercomputer, but yes"

"Then give it to William. He can hax their brains"

"I'll go take it to him now. He'll probably be excited by a way to hack a person"

* * *

 **Alice heard** a knock on her door "Yeah" she said, she was focused on this article she'd found, she'd only just started it, but it was really interesting. Apparently they'd found a way to manipulate plants on the cellular level, so they could grow much bigger, much faster, and required less water and nutrients than normal. It was an amazing breakthrough that could effectively eliminate all hunger on the planet. If they used it.

"Alice?" Shen's voice came from the door, Alice still didn't look away

"How can I help you?"

"Have you seen William?"

"Have you checked his room?"

"Yes"

"Did you check your GREMLIN?"

"Funny"

"I try"

"But seriously, do you know where he is?"

"Last I saw he was talking to Stacy"

"Stacy's room"

"She's the last one to see him from what I know"

"Thanks"

"No problem"

"What are you reading"

"ADVENT found a way to almost triple crop yields, I wanna know what they're going to do with it"

"Interesting"

"..." Alice returned to reading

"See ya later Archive"

"Yeah yeah, see ya"

The door slid shut, and Alice returned to reading

* * *

 **William** heard a knock on his door, and he rolled out of bed, he was still half-asleep and wasn't really aware of his surroundings. So when he tripped over a pile of clothes, he just thought it was the cable bunch in his room. "Ow" he mumbled to himself, as he dragged himself up. He really needed to sort out those cables. He got to the door, and fumbled for the door release. He found it, and the door slid open. Shen stood there, what looked like a glove in her hand

"Yeah?" he asked. He was still too asleep to realize that he wasn't in his room.

"Oh" Shen seemed surprised to see him. "Am I interrupting something?"

"What would-" His tiredness went away when he heard movement from the bed, and he remembered where he was, and the fact that he was only in his boxers. He suddenly got very embarrassed "No, I, uh, I"

"No no, no worries, I'll get out of your hair. I'll just leave this in your room" Shen walked off, and William was left standing in the doorway, in his boxers, practically glowing red from embarrassment.

"Will?" came a voice from the back of the room "Did you answer my door?"

"Uhhh" William was too shocked and embarrassed to talk

"At least you got your boxers on first" Stacy was practically pissing herself laughing at him

"I just woke up, I wasn't thinking" he shut the door and sat down on the bed.

Stacy continued giggling for several minutes, and eventually William chuckled a little as well, it was kind of funny when he thought about it. He looked down at the pile of clothes he'd tripped over, thinking it was the cables in his room, it was part of the junk pile Stacy had moved when she'd made her trash angel.

"You're such a dork"

"Never claimed to be otherwise" he replied and he looked at his hand "At least I didn't taser finger her"

"You did part of that already" Stacy whispered in his ear

"I will taze you"

"Remember how that worked the first time?"


	14. Chapter 14: Retaliation

**XJ-298 opened** fire out of the opening doors of the transport. Firing on Fully-Automatic, firing shots into the group of 'Resistance', his shots went clean through anyone he hit, ripping out organs and shredding flesh. The Mechanised unit next to him following suit with its rifle, each of the shots being fired were the size of cans, and would destroy anything they hit. The group quickly scattered, and the transport set them down once there were no more in sight. XJ-289 sent a confirmation bead to all units, each replied with an affirmative, Coms were fully operational. Each of the units had their own task. XJ-298 and his Mechanised unit went over to a building. It was large, 2 stories, with many hiding places, many of the so-called 'resistance' would flee to there, only to find an Officer of ADVENT and a Mec waiting for them. This would be a slaughter.

* * *

 **Aya sat** in the skyranger. She'd seen the recording they'd gotten from a Resistance member, before they were killed. ADVENT were there, and they'd revealed another new unit type, the Berserkers, they'd returned. This time though, they didn't have any kind of armour, and didn't even have the claws they'd had before, but there was no-doubt they'd be just as dangerous as before though. Some of the choices made sense for this mission. Aya could move quickly, and deal a lot of damage at close range, so she could dish out a great deal of damage to the Berserkers when they closed the distance. Ash could do a decent amount of damage from a long range, so they could engage the Berserkers out of their range. Alice, of course, she was very tactically minded, and was likely to know something about the Berserkers that they could take advantage of. Pyro could also dish out a lot of damage from close to medium range with his Machine Gun, and its quite likely that his hail of shots could hurt even a Berserker. But then 2 choices didn't make as much sense. Sean, his damage output left much to be desired, he was good at stealth, and could do decent damage when they don't know he's there, but he just lacked the full damage output that others like Harold, or Maxim could put out. And then, there was William. The Commander had decided to bring the Hacker along. What? There might be some mechanised unit, but Aya could take them down herself in a single shot, as she'd shown many times, and there wasn't going to be anything else to hack, the only reason he was on this mission was because of the Skulljack Shen had finished, although Aya thought it would be better to leave it until a mission that wouldn't be as important, but it wasn't her place to question the Commander, she was there to shoot things, not to think.

They slid down the ropes, and dropped down next to an RV, in quite a forested area. "Legs, get a look around. Ash, head up top. Everyone else, around the RV"

Sean moved around the RV, and quickly dropped down behind a rock "2 Mutons, and 1 of those Berserkers up top" but his response was too late to stop Ash grappling onto the RV. When he popped up, the Mutons saw him, and ran over to cover, and the Berserker began running towards them. Pyro showed up next to him, and just sprayed into the Berserker as it ran at them, shredding it's torso, and making it stumble slightly as some shots hit its legs, but it didn't seem to be bothered at all as its entire torso was ripped open and its organ exposed to the elements. As Pyro's spray slowed it down slightly, Ash lined up a shot between its eyes, pumping a shot straight into its skull, the head flopped backwards like it was dead, but the body kept running as if nothing had happened.

"Flash!" William called, as he threw a Flahbang directly in the path of the Berserker, it ran over it as it detonated, blinding the Mutons, but the Berserker didn't have a working head to be blinded anymore. Alice lined up a shot, and fired a short spray into the shoulder of one of the Mutons as it reached the cover of a tree, and it was finished off as Aya move over next to Sean, and pumped a shell into its head, sending it flying backwards with a spray of orange blood. Meanwhile, the Berserker continued its suicide run, it got right up to Sean, and was about to bring up its arms to pummel him, when a shotgun blast shredded what remained of its chest, and it fell backwards from the force of the blast, a shredded remains of meat and blood.

The last remaining Muton, dazed by the Flashbang, attempted to fire at the only target it could make out, but the beam flew miles too high, and didn't even hit the RV Ash was on top of. While it lined up its shot, Pyro unleashed a hail into it, shredding its arms and armour as it dropped back down with a screech of pain. Sean and William both tried to shoot it, to finish it off, but it was ducked down behind the rock, probably nursing its arms, and the shots sparked harmlessly aside of the rock it was behind. Alice moved around and got an angle where she could see it, and took out her pistol, driving a single shot between its eyes, and it dropped to the ground.

Aya saw the Muton go down, and decided to start heading up, moving along the edge of the cliff next to them, and seeing a clump of vines clinging onto it, she grabbed a bit, and pulled, it didn't budge, so she began climbing up, she reached the top, and found a resistance member cowering behind a tree, she nudged their shoulder, and pointed to the RV. They got the message and ran over to it, hiding inside. Meanwhile, Sean continued the scouting along the ground, and found an Officer, and 2 Stun Lancers on the cliff up ahead. Ash lined up a shot, and fired into the chest of one of the Stun Lancers as it dropped down, it stumbled backwards, but recovered quickly, and continued its mad dash for Sean. It got about halfway there when Alice brought up her rifle, and took it down with a burst to the head, the helmet cracked under the barrage of magnetic-accelerate metal, and it fell to the ground, sliding forward a few feet before friction overcame its momentum, and it slid to a stop, right next to Sean. Pyro saw the other Stun Lancer running for Sean as well, and quickly turned his Machine Gun, but Lancers are quick, and it reached Sean before he began the spray, but the Sean was also quick, and as the stun-sword swung for him, he kicked out, and threw himself backwards, the sword scraped across his legs, sending a shock of electricity up through him, but it hurt a lot less than it would have, had it hit flesh. The Lancer never got a chance for a second strike, as Pyros Machine Gun opened fire, and reduced it to a pile of meat and armour.

Aya saw the Stun lancers get destroyed, but hadn't seen the Officer, so she assumed he was still up with her. She got up from her cover, and began running up closer to where it had been, but as she got up, a red glow surrounded her. She immediately realized her mistake, and tried to jump back behind the rock, but even her legendary speed wasn't enough, and the Officer sprayed her, because she was moving, she didn't take a shot to the head, but she got a spray all the way down her left side. 1 Shot going through her cheek as she jumped, and the rest punching through her armour, and into her flesh as she went back. She landed heavily on her uninjured side, and dragged herself to the edge, and dropped down. She landed on her feet, but pain flared up her left leg as it took the impact as well, and it crumpled, she fell onto her side, and ended up getting into a sitting position. She sat there, gritting her teeth against the pain, she looked down her side, and saw her armour was completely shredded along that side, she tried moving her leg, and her left leg was fine, but when she tried to move her arm, it didn't respond, she looked, but couldn't see anything on the outside, though it must have destroyed the bones in the arm, it hung limply on her side. She reached down with her good arm to the emergency patch kit they all had, and she sprayed pain killers onto the side, but the kits aren't meant to handle anything like this, the pain lessened but didn't go away, it would also help the blood to clot, but she was still bleeding heavily. Her vision was swimming, and sounds were muted, she heard several soft bangs, and then Sean appeared in front of her, he said something, but she couldn't make it out, a second later, her vision returned to normal, and she could hear again. "Valkyrie, you ok?" Sean asked, he had his emergency kit out, and was spraying her side, removing more of the pain, and helping the blood to clot further.

"I'll live" Aya replied. She wasn't actually sure about that, but she was almost certain her arm would be messed up afterwards regardless.

"You should get back to Firebrand" Sean said.

Aya shook her head to clear out the cobwebs "No. I'm fine" she pulled herself to her feet. The combination of pain killers, and adrenaline completely blocking out any of the pain, though her arm still refused to respond. The others showed up around her.

"Valkyrie? You sure about this?" Sean asked

"Yeah. I'll be fine" Aya replied, she took the shotgun off her back, and held it in her good arm. Thankfully, the magnetic weapons had very little recoil, so she could hold the recoil of the shotgun in just the 1 hand without breaking it, unlike her old shotgun.

"All right" Alice replied "Legs, Valkyrie, head around there" she pointed around the side "Find another way up. Everyone else, lets head up here" she began to climb up, and the others got ready to follow.

Sean lead the way, Aya following behind, she could move quickly, but she slowed down, as she didn't want to damage her leg further if she could help it. As she moved up, she looked up, and saw 2 Mutons and a Berserker along the top "Zerker, 2 Mutes" the said into the coms. The Berserker took a shot to the head from Ash, and it shead flopped down like the other ones, but after it took the shot, it ran off in the opposite direction to Aya and Sean. The Mutons reacted more actively. One dropped down from the cliff, the other one ran across towards cover from the other group, but it didn't get far, as Ash adjusted aim, and pumped a shot into its head. Aya, seeing the Muton drop down, reacted with Instinct, she quickly dashed over to it, pressed her shotgun to its back as it ran over to a rock for cover, and pulled the trigger, blowing its back out its front, and it dropped to the ground, it didn't even get a chance to scream. Aya then quickly sprinted back over, when she got back into the cover, he leg screamed at the punishment. She'd completely forgotten about her leg for a moment, and she stumbled as she dropped down, falling from a crouch into a sitting position. Sean looked over at her, but he knew there was no way to talk Aya out of something once she'd put her mind to it.

"Zerks back" Alice shouted form above, there was a loud sound, the combination of rifles and Machine guns firing at the same time. Aya looked up, and saw a mangled mess of meat step over the edge, and fall to the ground just in front of her. Sean fired a burst into its head just to be sure, but it was dead. Berserkers might be tough, but even they couldn't take the combined fire of 2 rifles, and a Machine gun after taking a sniper round to the head. It would be difficult to get an autopsy of those things, as they had to reduce them to a clump of meat before they finally stopped moving. As the Berserker dropped there was a scream from above, but it wasn't an Alien or ADVNET scream, this was clearly a human scream.

"Faceless!" William shouted. Aya looked up again, and sure enough one of the shape-shifters was running towards the edge. It took a burst to the arm from William, then a second burst to the head as Sean fired into it, it followed after the Berserker, and landed next to it. Aya followed Sean up the 'ladder' of vines. She had to put her shotgun away so she had an arm to climb with, but she brought it back out when she got up. Her leg hurt with every step, but it was little more than a dull throb, painkillers and adrenaline were very good at numbing pain. Sean and Aya moved up to the building ahead of them, it was large, and 2 storeyed.

Pyro grunted something, and unleashed a hail into the building. Sean jumped through the window, and Aya followed behind, they saw an Officer jump out the window on the other side of the building, taking cover behind the wall, and a MEC levelling its rifle at them, but it didn't get a chance to fire, as a combination of shotgun and rifle destroyed it.

"I got that one" William called as he ran part, his rifle was in his left hand, and his right hand had some kind of blade coming out of either side of the fist. They seemed to be made of blue light, but they were solid.

* * *

 **XJ-298 jumped** out of the window, and put his back to the wall, XCOM had arrived, and they'd managed to get through the rest of his forces. He heard a bang, as the operatives destroyed his Mechanised unit. He gripped his rifle, and was about to take a shot, when there was a crash from behind him, and he turned to come face-to-face with one of them, he tried to turn around with his rifle, but only got hallway before he felt searing pain in his jaw, as 2 blades of solid light speared through his jaw, through his skull, and out the top of his head. Blood flooded his mouth, and he began choking on it, but he wouldn't experience that for long, as a pulse shot through the blades, and into his brain, the pulse made the blades temporary grow and the blades destroyed a large portion of his brain, he began fading out, but he kept trying to fight against it, as he felt the pulse try to hack into the chip in his head, but he didn't have the cognitive powers left to fight it, and he faded out, but he knew one thing they didn't, they'd just released the Codex from the server.

* * *

 **William drove** the blades through the Officers head, and sent the electronic pulse into its head. The flow of data flashed behind his eyes, and he mentally hacked into the chip in the back of the Officers head. He could have done it cleverly, fooled the Chip into thinking he was allowed access, but that would take longer, and the chip could deactivate before he got in. So, he brute forced it. Simply put, he just shunted a shit ton of data at the thing until he smashed through its defences. "I'm in" he allowed Shen to take over, she knew what she and Tygan wanted from the chip, so he let her recover what she wanted, while he kept the Officer on the blades.

"Got it" Shen said over the coms, and he deactivated the blades, the Officer dropped to the floor, he was about to turn back into the building when there was a flash of light, and a figure appeared behind him. It was slightly shorter than him, and had a vaguely female shape, but its body was made of yellow, flickering light, and its head was black, with 2 read lights deep in it, that must have been its eyes. It held a device in its hands, that looked like a plasma weapon, so William quickly dived back through the window he'd come through.

The creature thrust its hands forwards, and a purple swirling field appeared at the back of the building.

Aya looked at Sean as her shotgun stopped the constant hum that showed it was active. She dropped it, and pulled out the sword from her back, and ran across the room, Sean following behind her. Aya brought her sword through it. It recoiled like it had been hit, and its body flickered more, as it dropped back, there was a flash of light, then Sean jumped through the window, and drop-kicked it in the head, it feel forwards, and disappeared in a flash.

Pyro jumped out of the house, and saw a Faceless running for them, and he unleashed the last of his magazine into it. It stumbled, and fell, taking out a portion of the wall as it fell onto it.

Alice jumped out of the rift, and saw another one of those yellow-women in the other room, and bought up her pistol, which hadn't been damaged by the field, and fired towards it. But the thing pulled off a crazy feat of agility, and the shot barely grazed its body, and there was a flash of light. But ti didn't get long to be alive, because NOCLIP flew over, and unleashed a burst of electricity, and the thing disappeared.

Aya grit her teeth as she hit her arm on the wall after killing the thing. Then heard a slight whooshing sound, and turned to see another one appear a few feet away, and she threw her sword towards it. But the thing vanished before the sword hit it, and the blade clattered to the ground behind where it had been.

William sent NOCLIP over to Aya, using the new field that had been installed to create a field around her, in case anything else showed up, but no sooner had NOCLIP gone over then a green beam shot just over his head, making him duck down. He saw another one of those Yellow creatures, with its plasma device aimed at him, and he quickly threw a grenade, the grenade landed at its feet and detonated. For a moment the creature seemed fine, then it doubled over, and began freaking out, holding onto its head like it was in pain, before it straightened up, and disappeared in a flash of light. But this time, the head stayed, and dropped to the ground.

"That should be everything" Alice said "Find any survivors, and get back to the Skyranger"

Aya head the order, and retrieved her sword, then began limping towards the Skyranger. Now that the battle was over, the adrenaline was fading, she wanted to be back a the Skyranger before the pain grew too bad to walk on. Still her arm refused to move.

* * *

 **They had** failed. They might have killed the ADVENT forces, but they'd lost all but 2 Resistance members. The resistance cell in this area was dead. KA-001 looked at the data on the screen, and he knew that, although this was a victory for them, it was not as clear as it should have been. They'd hacked into their network. Thankfully they'd managed to limit what they'd get at, but they now had access to the Codex's processor. If they could decrypt that.. A Pyric victory then. But he'd also seen what Aya had been doing, she'd been hurt. Maybe a bit better than a Pyric victory then, if that damage resulted in anything more than her having to sit out of a couple missions of course. Still, they'd won. They'd destroyed the Resistance group in the area, that would set XCOM back quite a bit, and already he had other groups fighting back the Resistance in other areas. They'd taken a hit from the destruction of those 2 facilities, but they were recovering, the AVATAR project was backup and running, though progress was slower than before because of the damage they'd taken, but it would pick back up. XCOM got in the first hit. ADVENT got in the second. Now it was all about who would get the third.


	15. Chapter 15: Books, Theory, and Arms

**Sorry this was later than normal. I got Total War: Warhammer, and have been playing it furiously, so I didn't get around to writing this for a while. I also haven't been much into writing for a while. And I'd rather wait until I'm feeling it, so I don't end up putting out some shit. Besides. I put out almost 1 a day for a week, so you can't complain. I tend to go through phases where I get super into something. So once I get back into XCOM, these'll get pumped out again.**

* * *

 **Aya limped** towards the med-bay, Pyro supporting her left side, which was now just searing pain as the painkillers wore off. She could no longer bear to put her foot down, so she hoped along on her right leg. Pyro opened the door and they stepped in. Zacharie already had everything ready, so Aya was plopped down on the bed, and Pyro went out. Zacharie began working, checking out her wounds to see what she would need. She would wince whenever he got too close to most of the wounds, but wouldn't notice when he moved her arm.

"It's likely your going to lose this arm Aya. Its not infected, but it looks like the shot completely shattered it, even if it heals, it wont work quite as well as it used to" Zacharie said

Aya could barely hear him, her head was swimming and she was fighting just to stay conscious.

He kept talking, but his voice blurred, and she couldn't understand him, and she slipped into unconsciousness.

* * *

 **The Commander** limped back into his room. He'd just finished recovering when Aya was brought in. '1 in, 1 out'. It seemed very convenient. Ah well, random shit happened perfectly some times. He got into his room, looked over at the stack of papers on his desk, there was always a stack of damn papers. He hated paper work. He wasn't going to do any today, his left wrist was still in a cast, so he'd have to write with his right, which would never be readable. He sat down in his chair in front of the desk, took a remote from one of the draws, and pressed a button. The wall slid to the sides, revealing the screen he talked to the Chairman with.

"Hello Commander" the Chairman's blacked out figure said "Why are you contacting me"

"I just wanted to hear your voice it's so soothing"

"Very funny commander" he didn't sound amused

"I just wanted to check in on how things went on your end. We got the facility, and we got a hit against the Hammer and Anvil, looks like they retaliated though. It's going to take a while to set up another resistance cell in Eastern Europe"

"An unfortunate event commander, one we cannot afford to repeat"

"Yeah yeah, I know, stop focusing on the negatives. We've lost 1 fight in what, 20, that's pretty good odds"

"Not good enough"

"Whatever, how'd it go for you and the Mr's"

"We managed to deal a heavy blow to them, but they have regrouped, and pushed us back to the havens. We did a significant amount of damage before they reorganised. I don't know exactly how well the Mr's did. But they claim they managed to eliminate the majority of the information ADVENT had gathered from the sites"

"Great, we have some breathing room"

"For now"

"Stop being such a downer"

"You said you wanted a Naysmith"

"Don't use my own words against me, that's my thing"

"Goodbye Commander"

"Goodbye Awesome voice guy"

The screen turned black, and the wall slid back in. He looked at the clock 8:30pm, then looked to the stack of papers, then back to the clock. "Fuck it. I deserve a nap"

He got up, and went over to his bed, it was true, other than his stay in the med bay, he rarely got sleep. He swear he went a week with no sleep once. As he dropped into the bed, he noticed something different, the pillow was a lot harder than he remembered, he picked it up, to try and fluff it, when he noticed several books had been lying underneath it. That's why it was lumpy, he was really glad it wasn't a pea, he didn't think he could handle the responsibility of being both the Commander, and a Princess. The Princess Commander, it had a ring to it though. He shook that thought from his head, he had a tendency to go off on tangents when he didn't have anything to focus on. He looked at the books, they were leather-bound, and had no writing on the front. He opened up the first one, and set about reading.

* * *

 **"Commander" Alice** said as she stepped into his quarters.

The Commander looked up from the book he'd been reading "Yeah" his eyes seemed slightly unfocused, like he'd been reading for a while. Alice had that herself sometimes, you get so engrossed in a book, that when you stop reading it makes the 'real world' seem a bit strange for a minute until you get your bearings back. She wondered what he was reading, but decided to wait until later.

"I need to ask you something"

The Commander folded a corner of the page, and set it down next to him. She knew it was pointless giving him that bookmark. "Whats up?"

"It's about Aya"

"I swear if you're here to complain about having a psychopath-" he was smiling while he said it

"It's about Maxim"

"I thought you said it was about Aya"

"Its about both"

"Is there a point here, or are we just going to start naming everyone on the ship?"

"What do we tell Maxim?"

"About Santa not being real?"

"About Aya being injured"

"Oh. I thought he already knew"

"He would, but he's been training quite thoroughly for the past week, so he hasn't left his room"

"Can you get to the point, I was reading"

"Should we tell him about her being injured. If we tell him, it could mess up his training"

"And if we don't he might find out anyway"

"Precisely"

"Don't tell him" the Commander shrugged "At least not until he's done his training. Aya's tough, she'll be fine. I wouldn't be surprised if she was walking around before Maxim even knew she was hurt"

"Maxim's tough as well"

"I know. But different kinds of tough. He's a bit of a baby when it comes to emotions. It's why I haven't told him about Karl being the Hammer and Anvil guy, he wouldn't be able to fight them"

"Good point"

"My points are always good"

"Commander?"

"Ryan"

"Right, Ryan. What's that you're reading?"

"Not sure. It's good, whoever left it here is either a good writer, or had good taste in books. Seems like a story from the ADVENT Officer's perspective, I don't know. I'm halfway though"

"Sounds strange"

"I know. It's good though, very descriptive"

"let me read it when you're done?"

"You know it"

Alice smiled, and headed back out. She went over to the med-bay to check on Aya, and see if she could offer some help. She had nothing else to do, and she had basic medical training. She had basic pretty much everything training, in theory anyway. Name a subject, and she'd read everything there is to know about it. she wondered if the scuba diving would come in handy, but kind of hoped it didn't.

Alice entered the med-bay, and saw it empty, she looked over to the far side of the room, and saw the 'Operating' sign was lit. He must have been working on Aya. She didn't want to barge in, and make him flinch, that could end up causing Aya to become a human fountain. She cautious peeked in the door, and saw Zacharie prepping himself. Good, he hadn't started yet. She hopped inside, and closed the door behind her. Zacharie seemed to her, as he looked up.

"Alice. I'm a bit busy at the moment"

"Yes, I was wondering if I could help"

"I don't know, can you help"

"I have read all the theory behind it. And may I help"

Zacharie smiled "Well then. It seems I may be able to do it all in one go"

"Do what all?"

"The removal and the attachment"

"What?"

"Her arm is useless. Potentially she could get some motion back, but it would be nowhere near her normal level. So, Shen made a replacement. I was planning on removing the arm today, then attaching the replacement later. But since you're helping, we can do both now. Go to Shen and pick up the arm, come back, and we'll get started"

"We're getting a lot of people with Cybernetics"

Zacharie shrugged "Easiest way to improve people's efficiency. Now go on. We don't want her waking up mid-operation"

Alice jogged off to the get the new arm. The metaphor was not lost on her. The XCOM soldiers seemed to be slowly, and literally, losing their humanity, in order to combat the aliens. She only hopped it wouldn't go beyond augments.

She reached the Engineering deck, and went over to where Shen usually was, and sure enough, she was in her workshop, messing with her GREMLIN.

"Hey" Alice called as she came over "I need a hand"

Shen looked up "With what?"

"Sorry, bad pun. I'm picking up Aya's replacement arm for Zacharie"

"I thought he wasn't going to use it for a couple weeks" She shrugged, and pointed over to an area of the workshop, which contained an assortment of parts "It's over there"

"Thanks" Alice said, and went over, and quickly found the arm. She picked it up, expecting it to be heavy, but it was surprisingly light. Ah the wonders of alien Alloys. It looked like, basically a metal skeleton of an arm, but with wires going up and down it. "Aren't these a bit vulnerable?"

"I should hope not. Those cables are made to be able to take a hit from a speeding train without breaking"

"Ah, they'll stop a bullet then"

"I wouldn't be surprised if they survived a rocket launcher. The rest of the arm isn't quite as durable, it can still take a couple shots though"

"It's amazing what you've done with the alien technology"

Shen chuckled into her GREMLIN "I'm just scratching the surface of what this tech can do"

"Lovely chat, but I gotta get back to Zach"

"Don't let me keep you" Shen waved her off. She hadn't looked up from her GREMLIN the entire time.

* * *

 **Sorry this one was a bit, well, quite a lot, shorter than the others. I gotta get back into writing these. I was off for too long. Next one should be longer though. This seemed like a decent stopping point for the chapter, and there's a lot to happen before the next battle.**


	16. Chapter 16: Psi-Sign's

**The Commander** put down the last of the journals, Boomer knew how to write a story, but it wasn't just a story. He'd been part of that group, Hammer and Anvil. He guessed this was his way of telling him about it. Though why he'd done it so secretly he had no idea, Tygan had been with ADVENT himself, in fact, he'd recognised the scar immediately after Boomer had joined XCOM, but he'd never thought anything of it. He got to his feet setting the books, no, the journals, down on his desk, and he went over to a terminal, and tapped on the Icon that represented boomer, a stick of TNT, there wasn't a huge range of icons available.

"Hey Boomer, come up to my quarters, I think you want to talk to me".

* * *

 **Maxim tried** to calm himself, trying to remove all traces of doubt or fear, or even most thoughts for that matter is rather tricky, especially for someone like Maxim, who had a rather active imagination, and tended to go off on tangents at a moments notice, like that time that bus had a ladder on the side that defiantly should not have been there- No, he needed to stop thinking about things. Ok, focus, clear the thoughts...

"OW!" Maxim shouted out, as a book hit in right in the face, he fell backwards, more from surprise than pain, it wasn't hardcover at least. "The hell was that for!?"

Alex Ducan stood across from him in the Psi-Lab. Maxim only just noticed that he'd brought in some kind of table on wheels, like those ones at hotels that the cleaners use, and it was loaded with various objects, from books, to wrenches, to studded toys. "Did you think in the middle of battle that ADVENT's going to let you stand there and focus. No. Now focus, but remain alert"

"So i'm supposed to clear my head of all thought, but also keep a thought open for not dying?"

"No. You're supposed to allow your instincts to kick in. A psionic's instincts and reactions are faster than most, you just need to let yourself use them. Now, focus!" as he shouted this last line, he threw a wrench. Maxim ducked under it, and heard it clatter behind him, that would have hurt.

For the next few hours, Maxim went from not focusing enough, and getting yelled at by Alex, to focusing too much, getting hit with an object, AND getting yelled at by Alex. Eventually, he ran out of objects to throw. "That will be enough for today then" he announced

Maxim collapsed onto the floor, he could tell he'd be a mess of purple tomorrow. "Ow" he said half-heartedly, as his battered leg bumped against the wall as he sat.

"Not good enough. You were doing so well before we came to this exercise, perhaps this ability is beyond you"

Maxim didn't know how to feel about that, on the one-hand, Yay, not more wrenches getting thrown at me, but on the other hand, Maxim was incredibly competitive, normally, it only really showed up in gaming, everyone else, he wasn't really bothered if people could beat him, but recently, he'd begun to get competitive and defensive over his psionic abilities, like he was at gaming, he guessed this was because he kind of viewed his abilities like gaming abilities, giving them names, treating them like active and passive abilities, he even fancied he could give a pretty accurate cool-down time for each of them. You can tell you're gamer when-.

"Hey, I can manage it. I'm just not used to having to focus on so many different things at once" Maxim protested, pulling himself to his feet.

Alex smiled. He knew how to get Maxim to continue doing something, and he didn't need to be a telepath to do it. "Well then, try practicing on your own for a while, I shall return tomorrow"

"Wait. Can't I go talk to the guys. I'm getting bored and lonely, I don't even have an XBOX in here"

"As I told you before, the psionic energies in the room would play havoc with the electronics"

"Don't dodge the question. Can't I go talk to them. It's boring, and my face hurts from that wrench"

Alex chucked "Very well, I suppose you did take a beating, and maybe talking to your friends will help with the clearing your mind bit"

"Sure" Maxim replied, already heading out the other door, to get to the ladder. Why couldn't they have an elevator, their old base had 3 elevators.

As he emerged from the ladder, he caught sight of Roman walking quickly down the corridor. "Hey, Roman, you know where everyone is?" he called as he finished getting out of the ladder-hole.

Roman seemed to jump as he heard Maxim, but recovered quickly. "I believe they're in the Mess Hall"

"Thanks... Where are you going?"

"The Commander wants to talk to me"

"What'd you do" Maxim teased

Roman didn't reply and walked off. Maxim shrugged, Roman didn't tend to say much anyway, so dodging a question wasn't anything new. He made his way over to the mess hall, and found Sean, William, Ash, Alice, and Stacy. Almost everyone. Harold would be beating the stuffing out of another dummy, he missed meals a lot, who knew what the hell Pyro was doing, probably outside starting a forest fire or something, Roman was going to see the Commander. But where was Aya. Maybe she was training or working out, she usually didn't miss the meals, but she did have a habit of kind of showing up some places. He noticed William and Stacy were sitting together and talking, was there-, hey, who was he to judge besides, he didn't exactly think of himself as a great judge of people, they could just be chatting. He walked in and went over to get himself some food, but as he came in, the murmur of a conversation stopped, and they all looked about awkwardly.

"What? Something in my teeth?" Maxim joked, trying to break the sudden tension in the room.

"I thought you'd be training with Alex all day" Alice said

"What, you guys talking about me?" He asked it as a joke, but he noticed William and Alice immediately looked kind of nervous, and they looked down at their food. "Wait, were you guys actually talking about me"

"No!" William and Alice said at the same time, a bit too forcefully. They were terrible liars.

"I might not be a very good people-person, but you 2 suck at lying. What you guys talking about"

"It's not important Maxim" Sean said, his voice, eternally calm, always seemed rather soothing, like a kindly grandfather or uncle. Maxim knew that trick, Sean had done it to him several times, at least 4 times, Sean had gotten him to give him the last doughnut, on the rare occasions someone, usually Aya, Sean or Ash, did a shopping run into the City.

"Cmon, what you guys talking about. I won't be offended. The eyes? The hair? I have been thinking about getting Shen to make me Contacts"

Alice looked away awkwardly "No. It's not about that"

"Come on. Just tell me already, I'm just going to be annoyed, and keep bugging you until you tell me"

"I don't doubt it" Alice replied. "Aya told us about your attempts to mess with Xeno, completely ignoring him except for combat"

"Ah, good times" Maxim sighed as the nostalgia kicked in, and he remember messing around with Karl to try and annoy Ryo, or was it Rio... Was Rio the city? He never did learn how to spell the guys name, maybe it was- No. She'd almost done it. Maxim was fairly easy to manipulate, and Alice was good at diplomacy, but he'd been working on pulling himself away from tangents. "Stop trying to distract me with Nostalgia. What are you guys talking about?!"

"I'm out of ideas. Anyone else?" Alice said

"I could tazer-hand him" William suggested

"I will Soulfire you" Maxim threatened, reaching a hand behind him to the purple orb of psionic energy.

"Ash, Sean, you guys got any-" Alice began, as she looked over, she saw that both of them had managed to sneak off without any of them noticing. Sean and his damn quiet ass legs, and Ash with his damn Mr training. "Damnit"

"2 horrible liars and the soldier are left. Can you just tell me already" Maxim was beginning to get a bit annoyed with this. He'd faced plenty of people talking behind his back at school, but never people he considered his friends.

"All right. Maxim, don't get mad-" Alice began

"I wouldn't be mad if you would just tell me"

"I'm trying to tell you!" Alice shouted back

"All right" Alice continued "Now, Ry-, The Commander said that it would be best not to tell yo-"

"Don't drag the Commander into this. And Who's Ry?"

"Aya was injured during the last mission" Alice blurted out, trying to distract Maxim from her blunder with the Commander's name. Of course, around the Commander she would forget to use his real name, then around others she forgot to use his title, sometimes she hated her brain.

"That's it? Aya's been injured loads, didn't you notice the massive ass burn covering half her face"

"This is worse" William put in

"How worse?" Maxim was beginning to get worried

The silence lasted for the better part of a minute, and Maxim was about to butt in when Stacy did it for him

"All right. From what I heard, she got messed up by an officer, shots all down her left side, 1 straight through the cheek as well. She's alive, but in bad shape, and, I think, she might lose the arm"

Maxim slumped down, luckily he'd been in front of a chair so he didn't just fall on his ass. He couldn't be hearing that right, Aya, lost her arm.

"There's no maybe about it" Alice added quietly

"What!?"

"I talked to Zacharie, the arms way too fractured, we had to amputate it"

"We?"

"I have basic medical training, I helped him out"

"So Aya's only got 1 arm?" Maxim was going even paler than normal, Alice was worried he'd go into shock or faint.

"No" She added quickly "Shen made... a spare"

"A spare?"

"Like Sean's legs. We attached it on. But it'll still be a few weeks before she recovers... If she recovers" she added this last bit quietly

There was a flash of purple and a rather loud bang, and when Alice's vision and hearing cleared again, Maxim was gone, and there was a slight purple haze where he'd just been.

"What the-?"

* * *

 **"If she** recovers" Those words had triggered something in Maxim, as soon as she said that, he'd felt a build up in his head, like all those years ago when he's just started to learn his psionics, and he was unlocking his new abilities, the build up of psionic energies in his head that needed to be released. He didn't he know what he was doing, he just poked the barrier in his mind that held back the psionic energies, and a rush of psionic energies raced through him. For a second, everything was a strange mass of purple mist swirling around itself, it was kind of pretty, but it only last for about half a second before the purple mist was replaced with the metal surroundings of the Avenger. It took him a moment to recognise it, but he was in the infirmary.

"Great Scott" A startled voice said from behind him, and Maxim turned to see Zacharie, one hand on the bed behind him, it seemed like he's jumped backwards when Maxim had appeared. "Maxim. Where did you come from. Ah, that was loud. Do you hear ringing?"

"Sorry, I think I teleported"

"You think?"

"Not sure if there's a sciency word Alex would use, but yeah"

"Well, now that the ringing is dying down-" he wiggled a finger in his ear "-somewhat, would you care to tell me why you didn't just use the door like a normal person?"

It came rushing back, and he remembered what had sent him here "Aya"

"Oh. I thought they weren't going to tell you until you finished that psionic lesson"

"Where is she?"

"I'm afraid I can't let you see her right now. She's not completely stable, and I'd rather not have you throwing psionics around"

"Where?!"

"As I said, I can't say. Come back in a week, and she may have recovered enough to-"

"To see me?" a voice came from Maxim's left, a voice he recognised instantly, he'd recognise that monotone anywhere. He turned, and saw Aya standing in the doorway. She had on a gown, like the ones you have to wear at hospitals, but with long sleeves. Did the ones at hospitals have long sleeves? The last time Maxim had been in a hospital for surgery was when he'd had to get his wisdom teeth removed, and that was kind of faded from the hospital gas he'd been on afterwards. is mother had told him he'd been saying he'd gotten a letter from Hogwarts, School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and thought he was a wizard, then started crying about something that they never got out of him wh- Those god-damned tangents. He immediately ran over, and tackle-hugged her. Normally, if he tried anything like that, it was like he'd hit a brick wall. Aya might not have been a massive woman, but she was tough, and knew how to absorb impacts... But not this time. When he slammed into her, she went down. He fell with her, entirely surprised by the fall. Luckily, Aya was fast, even in an injured state like this, and she managed to twist in the air as they fell, so they landed on their sides, and their shoulders took the impact of the fall, not the back of Aya's head. Even so, it hurt. Maxim was not as fast, and got a good whack tot he head from the floor, he always wondered why hospitals didn't have softer floors, what with all the people that would have injuries, or could faint at a- He needed to find some way to stop that. What was it some people did, get an elastic band around your wrist, and snap it every time you- Fuck sake, he even went on tangents about stopping his tangents. As his mind did his wander, he felt something wet on his face, and looked down to see blood. He immediately forgot the tangent, and shot up, back to his feet. He noticed Aya pulling herself up as well. He checked himself over, and saw no injuries, he ran a hand over his head, and found nothing, he looked back to the floor, and saw a quite substantial amount of blood there, then he looked over at Aya, and saw something very not pleasant. Apparently Stacy had been right about her taking a shot to the cheek, the stiches must have come out from the fall, because blood was spraying out of her left cheek. Strangely though, Aya didn't seem to notice. She seemed to be doing an inventory much like himself, but surely she could feel that, it must hurt like hell.

"Aya, sit down, I need to re-stitch that" Zacharie came storming over, with, what looked to Maxim like a needle and thread. Aya sat down, and Zacharie began the process of cleaning and stitching the wound, again. Despite him putting disinfectant on it, and then beginning to stitch it, Aya never once let out any sign of pain.

"Doesn't that hurt?" Maxim asked, as Zacharie's needle, or whatever the medical word for it was, bit into her flesh, as he stitched up her cheek. Aya held up her right hand, then held up her middle and index finger and the thumb, then brought the 2 fingers down to her thumb. Sign language for 'No'.

Maxim had learned sign language young, his cousin was deaf, so he'd learned it to talk to him better. But he was surprising Aya knew it. Without even realizing he was doing it, he switched into sign language, despite the fact that he could have talked normally. He put his finger on to his chin, then turned it 180 degrees, without it leaving his chin. 'Seriously?'

Aya replied by making a circle with her index finger and thumb, held that out by her side, brought it in to her stomach, twisted the hand, then moved it back to beside her. Although she only did it with 1 hand, when it's meant to be a 2-handed one. Maxim knew what she meant 'Painless'.

Maxim was about to continue when Zacharie stood up. "Right, well. You seem to be mobile, but get back to your bed, we still need to see if your arm will attach itself properly. And since you can apparel communicate with sign's, I'd recommend doing that as well, so you don't end up pulling out the stiches by talking" He sighed "I guess it's fine for you to see her them Maxim. Although I am amazed you are awake. I thought you'd be out for another few hours at least. And then to be able to walk around as well. You're made of stern stuff Miss Valkyrie. I'll have to report this to the Commander" He looked at Maxim, then at Aya. "And nothing strenuous" With that, rather invasive, comment, he left the room.

Maxim pointed at Aya, then brought his hand to his chin in a loose fist, before thrusting the hand away from his chin, and making an L with his index and middle finger. 'You OK?'

Aya gave him a thumbs up, a rather universal sign of 'Yes'.

Maxim made his hands into a kind of M shape, with the last joint of the fingers pressed together, and with the thumbs pointing towards his chest, then turned this upside down. Pointed at Aya. Then placed his right hand flat on his left, and dragged the hand down from the upper-arm to wrist. Roughly 'How's your arm?'

Aya's right hand made a shape like Spider-Man shooting a web, placed the middle and ring finger on her sternum, then brought them up to collar-bone height, then changed her fingers to all pressed together (Like a sock-puppet with its mouth shut), and brought that out to her side. 'Numb'.

Maxim pointed at Aya, then tapped the side of his head with all 4 fingers pressed together, then made his hands into rough fists, with the index finger coming out, and moved the 2 index fingers around each other. 'You Know Sign?'

Aya put her thumb to her mouth, then held it In front of her, and put her middle finger and thumb together, then fluttered the hand to the side. 'Secret Messages'. The she pointed at Maxim. 'You?'

Maxim made a his hand into a C-Shape, then held it up to his hear, and swivelled it, then put a finger at the corner of his mouth, then moved it up to his ear. 'Cousin Deaf'.

Aya nodded, she then held her hand down, and brought it up into a kind of OK sign that divers would use, before making another sign that was like pointing at him, but with the middle finger pointing down slightly, made a fist, and did the point, finger down thing again 'Found PSP'

Maxim didn't wait another second, he hoped over to Aya, helped her get up, she was a little shaky on her feet, with her left leg bandaged up and in a cast, and helped her into her room, where the Gaming awaited.

* * *

 **Sorry if I went a bit overboard in describing the signing. I started doing it, then couldn't stop it. And because I've gotten into the habit from school, here's the link to the site I got the signs from, in case somebody wants it for, reasons. I don't know, just felt like I should put the link in.**

 **Anyway, I'm going to try and make sure that I get 1 of these up a week, though the actual day will vary depending on when I have time, but once a week hopefully, and maybe more if we get to Christmas and I end up getting into XCOM again. Oh, if anyone was wondering, I, unfortunately, do not have any DLC's on the game. So we won't be seeing the alien Kings/Queens, nor Shen's moment (Sorry, didn't have the money for it, and now I'm getting towards the very end game, so it's a little too late). Maybe after this is all over I'll make another one with the DLC's included, but it just won't feel right writing an XCOM story without the group. Maybe an alternate universe thing or something. I don't know, but we got quite a while before that, as there's still a lot of shit to go down before we get there.**


	17. Chapter 17: New Skills

**I know i said i'd get these out once a week, but i suck at schedules, and i don't want to force myself to write something, because afterwards I know i'll look at it like 'The hell was i thinking'. So, from now on, if i give any kind of schedule, ignore me. These will come out as i make them. I need to be in the right mood to write, and i just haven't been feeling particularly into it that much recently. But, as i said, i tend to go through phases, so, no doubt, i'll get back into it, and there will be getting pumped out at some point. Anyway, enough of me rambling about why you shouldn't expect too much of a schedule, let's get to what i actually wrote. Hope you enjoy.**

* * *

 **Aya was** back. Truly back. Only a week ago she'd been half-dragged into the infirmary, with them not sure if she'd survive. Now, she was back on her feet, as good as ever, she'd even got used to the new arm within a couple days. All of these feats amazed Zacharie who said that, by all rights, Aya should have been bed ridden for at least 2 weeks, and up to a month before she learned how to use the arm. Her quick recovery was nothing short of miraculous to him, although Aya just took things in her stride.

She was testing herself against a training dummy, wanting to make sure that she was still functioning fully before sparing with the others. She had several new scars, a jagged one down her cheek from after she'd ripped the stitching back open after Maxim tackled her, and several all down her left side. She stood before the training dummy, and lifted up her left arm, it was skeletal in looks, with cables and various other things snaking around it, but there was no danger, it would take a mag-bullet to break those cables. She clenched into into a fist, it was a little slower than her right arm, she wasn't as used to it as the others thought, but it was good enough. Without warning, as she'd often do in a normal fight, her arm moved from its position in front of her chest, to extended at the dummy's head. She punched straight through it's head. She was taken aback for a moment, then realized, of course, it's fully metal, it's quite a bit heavier than her normal arm, so putting the same amount of force as a normal punch would give it significantly more power. She tried to pull her arm back out, but found it was stuck, she gave it a few more tugs, and it still didn't budge, she was about to use her right arm to free herself when she felt it suddenly pop free, and she pulled her hand back out.

"Happens to me all the time" Harold said as he stood up from behind the dummy "I think they got some kind of support in there that grabs you. Took me a while to figure out how to get my hand out without just destroying the head"

Harold rolled his shoulders and cracked his knuckles "You up for some sparring?"

"You may wish to avoid my left arm"

"Think fast" he called, and threw something to Aya.

Without even looking, her right arm reached over, and grabbed the object out of the air, she brought it in and had a look. For a moment she wasn't sure what it was, then it clicked. It began like a normal sword, but after a few inches of straight metal, it curved sharply, looking like a sickle blade. A Khopesh. The curved part was used for catching you opponents blade so you could twist it out of their grip. The end could be used for stabbing, and outside curve was for slashing, and the inside curve could hack as well. She spun it around a few times to gets its weight, it was slightly heavier towards the end than it should be, and she could tell at a glance that it had been dulled.

"You've used that before?" Harold asked, pulling a greatsword from behind the dummy, and whipping it around him 1-handed. His strength was immense.

"No" Aya wasn't lying. She'd never even heard of this weapon before, yet, when she looked at it, it felt like she knew everything there was to know about this weapon "Where did you get these?"

"Visited Miss Lost" Before he even finished talking, Harold was swinging.

Aya calmly stepped aside from the swing. She wasn't sure how she knew this, but she'd never argued with this instinct before, the same thing happened when she first picked up a shotgun, but Harold had put too much power into the swing, and over-balanced himself. As she stepped aside, she poked him in the side with her Khopesh as he tried to reign in from the attack.

"Nice trick" Harold replied, regaining his position, and holding the sword out again, this time 2-handed. He came at her again, this time more controlled. Apparently Harold knew his stuff, but Aya knew one thing, nobody could beat her speed or endurance, she deftly dodged or parried every attack. He had too much strength to fully block, so she'd merely allow Harold sword to slide along her blade, and let the curve do the work. She danced circles around him, knowing that every second he went without landing a hit, his anger would grow, the stimulants in him would drive him more and more until he became reckless, then it would be simple to beat him. As usual, she was right, within a minute, Harold was roaring in frustration every time he missed. His anger reached a point when he pulled something very unorthadox, but very like Harold, he held the sword to his hip, and spun. Even with it being dulled, a hit from that would have cut her in half, but she knew what to do. As he spun for her, rather than back off like he expected her to, she ran towards him, leaping up, then pushing down with her left foot, which landed squarely on the blade. There was a loud ringing sound as she kicked off of his blade, breaking the tip cleanly off of it wit the force, flipped over his head, and landed behind him, with the inner curve of her blade around his neck, if it had been sharp, a simple pull of the blade would have taken his head clean off. She held that position for a second more, making sure Harold's stims had slowed down, and he wouldn't attack her in rage, as had happened the first few times they'd sparred, then released him.

"Never used it before. I call your bullshit" Harold said, as he retrieved the 2 pieces of his blade.

"I have never used a blade beyond my knife or the sword provided to me by XCOM" Aya replied, and it was true.

"Then how are you so damn good. I've been practicing with sword my entire life"

Aya shrugged

"I gotta go get this fixed. You can keep that by the way" He said, as he walked back out, carrying the greatsword, and the broken tip.

Aya looked down a the Flachion. She'd never really questioned any of this before. The first time she'd picked up a shotgun, she'd know everything about it, the same when she'd gotten her knife, and the blade they'd given her here. She'd never seen anything strange about it. But Harold had said he'd been training in sword fighting his entire life, and Aya had only 1 other experience in sword fighting, and that was with that Lancer back when she first re-encountered XCOM. And yet, she'd beaten him with ease. Maybe, wait, hadn't Maxim said something about feeling something Abnormal in her mind when they'd done that, what did he call it, Inspiration. She began re-thinking a lot of things she'd done, even before XCOM, she'd always been a fast healer, at the Orphanage she'd once gotten pushed out of a third story window, and had been back up on her feet within a week, the kid that had pushed her out had been in hospital for over 3 months after she'd gotten back. Her ability to his targets over extreme ranges for the shotgun, destroying Turrets on top of buildings in a single shot that Harold couldn't manage with his shotgun. Back when she'd had her face burned by the plasma ball, she'd been ready to go within a few weeks, but was made to stay in the med-bay. When she'd gotten the archangel suit, she'd been able to control the flight of that almost instantly after putting it on. When Maxim used the Inspiration on her, she'd not even been surprised by her sudden increase in reactions, she'd just taken it in her stride, even when it was completely unexpected, Maxim had tried it out of combat on the others afterwards, and they were all a bit disorientated the first time. Maybe that could be explained with their close connection, she had spent 20 years in close proximity to him while he was 'Bleeding psionic energies'. She knew it had taken Smokes almost a month to be able to walk on his cybernetics, but they also weren't as advanced. She looked at the Falchion again. Maxim had mentioned something about a way to check if the weird thing he'd felt was anything important, he hadn't felt it in any of the others, but he also mentioned wanting to test it on an alien first. She looked to the Falchion again, and nodded to herself, before heading outside. First thing, she needed to sharpen this.

She stepped off of the Avenger, they were set down somewhere in the Mojave desert. She moved away a bit, and found a rock, sat down, and began sliding the rock along the blade, producing sprays of sparks, as she slowly gave an edge to the blade. As she sharpened, she looked around, and noticed, strangely enough, a pool. Not a small lake, an actual pool. She wondered why the hell there was a pool, but quickly dismissed the thought, as she concentrated on sharpening the blade.

* * *

 **"Excellent work** Maxim, you have made great progress today" Alex said, as he ran out of objects to throw, and Maxim rubbed a quickly forming lump on his forehead. Maxim has managed to keep up the ability pretty well, and done quite good at dodging the objects, he messed up the ability only once, when a wrench had hit him, causing said lump he was rubbing. He really wished he had some kind of healing ability. He'd started to get a knack for clearing his mind, while still keeping focus enough to dodge things. Though if he could manage that during a battle where he also had to fire back, and keep in mind where over a dozen things were at once, would be a different story. "Have some rest, or go for a wander if you want" Alex turned and walked back out of the room.

Maxim sat down on his bed, and looked into the glass wall, he could see the lump forming on his forehead. That would be sore tomorrow. In fact, screw that, it was sore today. As he winced and poked at the lump an announcement came over the speakers.

"Would all operatives please report to the bridge. Repeat, all operatives please report to the bridge"

Maxim pushed himself to his feet, and began heading to the damn ladders. Why couldn't someone make an elevator here.


	18. Chapter 18: Vipey

**"This is** a terrible idea" Sean said as they walked along. Aya, Maxim, Pyro, Stacy and Roman with him. They were walking through an ADVENT city, to pick up a VIP from inside. He was in too deep for a normal extraction, they needed to walk in normally.

"Nah, I got this" Maxim assured him, seeing a purple glow surrounding each of them as he worked his psionic magic. "Commander told you, I found a trick"

"What exactly are you doing?" Stacy asked

"Not sure. it all went Science science science, light, big word, science science, when Alex explained it. Basically, I think, I alter the flow of light, making us look different. So we have different faces, and are not wearing around, or carrying weapons"

"That is certainly helpful" Aya said

"Yeah, but I can't keep it up during combat, it takes too much focus, bending light and all that"

"Convenient" Roman replied

"I know right. It's like that thing in games where it gives you this awesome ability, then takes it away in the next scene. I hate that"

"Not everything is a video game" Stacy replied

"No, but my psionics work like a video game, why do you think I'm so good at them"

"I don't know, and frankly I don't care" Stacy said

"Fair enough" Maxim replied. "But I bet you after this mission, we'll never see this power again... Who's the guy we're grabbing again?"

Stacy face palmed "His name is Raquel Sanchez, and he has information to another facility we can hit"

Maxim took in a breath to say something

"And he can't just send it to us because it could be intercepted" Stacy interrupted

"Fair enough"

"I do love these new guns though" Maxim said, motioning towards the new Plasma-variant of the rifle on his back

"It's too bad they're still working on the variants" Aya said, motioning towards her shotgun.

"Ah, I still remember my sniper rifle, that thing was amazing-" Maxim said, but was interrupted by Stacy

"Enough, you can discuss this once we're back at the Avenger"

"Yes mam" Maxim said begrudgingly.

* * *

 **As they** approached the building Stacy turned to the rest. "You guys get to the roof, I'll pick up the VIP and meet you up there"

Maxim looked up at the building "I wish I had my grapple suit"

"They have elevators" Aya said as she walked in

"Really? I wish we had elevators"

"You've said that a lot"

"We had elevators at the old X-COM base"

"Come on" Roman said "Let's get up there, you can argue about this on the roof"

They went in to the elevator, and hit the button for the top floor, Stacy joined them, but hit a button about 2/3 of the way up. The elevator reached the floor and Stacy stepped out. "Just a warning, we might have to go loud once I get up there" the door slid shut, and Stacy jogged over to the room the VIP was awaiting inside. She brought out her pistol, and checked the magazine. She got to the door, cocked the gun, held it up and ready, and tried to open the door, it was locked, like she'd expected. She took a few steps back, and ran at the door, kicking it as she ran forwards, driving her foot just below the handle, where physics would help with the opening. She drove her foot, and the door burst inwards, she spun with the momentum of the kick, so she wouldn't be overbalanced, and her combat-trained senses picked up exactly what she'd thought she'd see. 3 Soldiers advancing towards Sanchez, their rifles up, but they weren't expecting an attack from being, and Stacy pumped a shot straight into the back of the head of one of them before they could even turn around. She fired again as she moved towards another door leading to the side, flinging it open to give herself some cover, her shot struck the soldier in the chest, and he dropped. As the final soldier brought up his rifle to fire, there was a loud crack of electricity, and the soldier twitching uncontrollably, dropped to the ground. Sanchez was behind the soldier, Stun Gun in hand. Stacy approached, kicked the soldiers helmet off, and stomped down hard on it's head, twice, the first stomp fracturing the skill, the second stomp breaking it completely, and making it's head resemble a broken watermelon.

She turned to Sanchez. "Raquel Sanchez?"

"Y-yes, that'd be m-me. You're the X-COM P-people?"

"Yes, follow me, the rest of the squad are awaiting us on the roof. Keep that Stun gun handy. Extraction may take a few minutes"

"Oh, o-of course" he attempted to wipe some orange blood from his cheek, but only succeeded in smudging it further across his face

"Let's go" Stacy said, reloading her pistol, putting it back in it's holster, and bringing out her rifle. It was strangely warm in her hands, and there was a slight humming to it, as the generators in the rifle kept the super-heated plasma generated and contained safely, ready for discharge.

* * *

 **"There's patrol's** down there" Sean said

Maxim jumped backwards from the edge "Holy crap Legs. I forgot you were there"

Sean smiled

"Did nobody else forget he was there?"

Silence

"I hate you guys"

Suddenly there was a weird sound, a kind of bang an a whoosh together, like a flamethrower and a rifle were fired at the same time, and they all looked over at the roof entrance, to see a dark skinned man with long brown hair and a neat beard come running through the door, followed closely behind by Stacy, another one of those Whoosh bangs as she fired her Plasma rifle back down the stairway, there was a shriek and the sound of a body falling down stairs, then she got out the door, closed it, grabbed a pipe along the wall, pulled out a small section of it, and put the length of pipe between through the handle. She looked at them. "Extraction is on the building across" she said, pointing towards it. "Let's go. We're loud"

Maxim looked down over the railing, and saw 2 Vipers, and an Archon running towards the buildings entrance. The legless things that are apparently a more fancy version of the Floaters. He looked to one of the Viper's, then at the other's taking aim.

"1 second guys. I wanna try something" he took out the psionics focusing thingy from his back, he could never remember all the sciencey names they gave his stuff. He focused, reached into the purple ball, and thrust his hand towards the Viper. "Domination time" he whispered as he felt the power take effect, and the strange sensation as his consciousness slightly merged with that of the Viper. He could see a slight overlay of what the Viper could see. He communicated to the viper to hold up her arm in a stop motion, the other 2 stopped and looked at the Viper. "Don't shoot the one that just stopped them" Maxim said.

Pyro nodded, stood up completely, levelling his LMG towards the Archon, and, bracing it against the railing, began unleashing an ungodly hell of bolts into it. It was thrown backwards a few feet by the hail of shots, and as she hail lessened, it pointed its sceptre towards the group on the roof in time to see the bolt of plasma fly towards it's head. As the Archon's head dissolved under the heat of the plasma, the non-controlled Viper began slithering to cover, as it reached the cover of a bench facing the statue behind it, it realized too late that something else had beaten it there. Aya stood there, her shotgun levelled at the Vipers head, before the Viper could pull away, it's head and neck evaporated in a blast. She turned to the side to see an Officer and one of the Shieldbearers come running in from around the statue in front of her. She sprinted over, and reached the lamp post just as the Shieldbearer reached it, and, doing a quick spin to build up momentum, and using the Shieldbearers own movement, to thrust her sword straight into it's neck. The blade went clean through the weaker armour at the neck, and there was a gurgling as the alien choked on it's blood. She wrenched the blade back out, and felt a familiar surge of energy, her sight enhanced for a moment, and she spotted the Officer getting into cover behind the statue, raising it's rifle. She dashed over to it, and, even suprising herself, reached it before it had even brought it's rifle halfway into position. She brought the blade down, and severed the Officer's arms from the mid-forarm, making it's rifle, and hands fall to the ground, she spun with it, and brought the blade around to take the officers head clean from it's shoulders. As the head was separated, the was a thud behind her. It was the Shieldbearers corpse hitting the ground.

As Aya destroyed the new group, the XCOM soldiers moved up, getting off the roof, back to ground level, and heading towards the building.

"I see why you like her" Roman whispered to Maxim as they moved.

Maxim blushed, and sent the Viper, which he was now calling Vipey, up forwards to scout. As she got around the statue, she saw 2 Stunlancer's and a Viper running out of the building. The Archon and a Stunny were standing in perfect position, and she spat a poison cloud at the group, engulfing them in poison.

"Stunny's and Fancy Floater ahead" Maxim said, just as the Archon came into view, and he fired off a burst into it, as it was moving towards Vipey with it's staff, sceptre thing at the ready, but it was thrown backwards with a plasma bolt directly to the face. "Don't hurt Vipey" Maxim said as the Archon dissolved.

Suddenly a Stun Lancer sprinted past the Archon's corpse, dodging shots from the rest of the group, and jabbing Roman with it's stun-sword, but it's victory was shot lived, as a pistol shot from Roman knocked it back, and Roman took the advantage to fire a plasma bolt into it's chest.

As the other's fought that part Aya was in her own battle. The other Stun Lancer ran at her as the Officer's head struck the ground, and it attempted to stab at her with it's stun blade. But Aya remembered a move she'd pulled against Harold, and leaped up, using the Stun Lancer's sword as a stepping stone, flipped over it's head slashing off it's left arm with her sword, and destroying it's back with her shotgun and landing deftly on her feet behind it. She got behind a lamppost, and waited for the others to catch up.

Aya heard movement inside, and with a quick nod towards the rest, sprinted towards the door. Out of pure instinct, she went into a slide to get through the door, and it turned out to be the perfect thing to do, as a hail of fist-sized bullets flew through the area she'd just been standing it. She got out of the slide, into cover behind a staircase, and turned, pumping a shell into the Officer that had been behind a box by the door. destroying it's torso. She heard a hissing, as 'Vipey' slithered past through the area the MEC's hail had been going though a second ago, reared back her head, and thrust forwards, shooting out her tongue. The tongue follow quickly by a hail of shots that badly damaged the chest plate of the Shieldbearer, but it's armour saved it until a bolt of plasma burst through the weakened metal, burning through it's torso before it could recover from the burst. The MEC took a step forwards, and reactionary fired another burst towards Aya as she sprinted towards it, sliding beneath it's legs, and firing a shotgun blast into it's crotch section, before another bolt of plasma struck it in the head section, dissolving the plate, and frying the electronics within. They waited for a moment after the robot hit the ground, but didn't hear any reinforcements incoming. They went up to the roof as Firebrand flew in low, and dropped the ropes to them. The rest all clipped themselves in, and were drawn up, but Maxim stayed down, looking at Vipey. "Don't even think about it Vampire" Stacy called from above "Kill it and let's go"

Maxim was close to tears as he approached the Viper, he brought Vipey into a hug, and could feel tears about to spring forth as he focused his psionic abilities, and Soulfired the Viper. Normally a Viper could haver resisted it, but because it was dominated, it was a lot more powerful through his open conduit to it's mind, and the Viper died immediately. Maxim lowered the now dead Vipey to the floor, and, tears beginning to leak from his eyes, he clipped himself to the final rope, as firebrand began taking off. He pulled himself over the lip into the ship, wiping tears from his eyes.

The others looked at his strangely.

"What's got you all upset?" Sean asked

Maxim sniffed as he got into his seat "It's just... We were kind of like 1 person for a time. It's such an intimate connection, it was like we were family"

The rest looked at his strangely again.

"You just don't understand" Maxim said, wiping the last of the tears away

"Well" Aya said "At least we know that ability works now"

Maxim looked over at her, and it took him a moment to recall the conversation they'd had "Oh yeah"

"Kinky" Stacy smirked as the ship flew towards the Avenger.

* * *

 **Again, sorry about the delay, but I'm getting back into it now. Hopefully I'll get them more regular, but, again, no promises. And if anyone is confused about the fact that I never mentioned the Commander-Roman chat, that's on purpose, a nice surprise for later. And if anyone's been confused by the fact that Aya has, several times in the earlier parts, used ADVENT equipment, that is on purpose as well. Nobody else has mentioned it because at first she was alone, and then they were more surprised at the random woman running out of the woods and wrecking shit. If you don't know, it mentions in the game that the reason they haven't just taken ADVENT weaponry is that it detonates if a Non-ADVENT tries to use it. Harold used a gun as well, but I can just tell you here that it's because the stim's make his stuff difficult to read, and the DNA scanners got confused, and there was a delay of a minute or 2 before it realized what happened and detonated, but by then he'd dropped it. The Commander-Roman chat, and Aya's thing will be explain later. I know I said in the notes earlier that Aya's 'Just fast'... I may have lied (Actually it was because I had Aya use XCOM equipment, then saw that note in the game and was like 'shit... Ooh, I can go with this). I also love my Videogame comparisons from Maxim, they just let me break the fourth wall a bit, and it's fun.**

* * *

 **Oh, and Happy New Year.**


	19. Chapter 19: Plans and Questions

**KA-001, previously** known as Karl, growled low in his throat as he watched the recordings of XCOM's latest, excursion, into an ADVENT city. He watched as a Viper unit turned on the other ADVENT forces, and fired upon them, and saw Popov concentrating and thrusting from the device on his back just before this happened. He remembered those times, before ADVENT, but only vaguely, but he did remember that Maxim had not possessed that ability before, his psionics was expanding. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before turning to the other commanders around him, "They are getting stronger. It is time to bring out all of our weapons". He turned to the screen next to him, and, at a thought, an image of a large, bi-pedal walker appeared "The Sectopod. I have no doubt that they shall be afraid of it, and that they should. However this fear will work both for and against us, as they will focus all their fire upon this, but it can also take it, allowing our other soldiers to strike while they are distracted". He motioned to another screen, and an imagine of a large metal ball with an eye hole within it, next to that, an image of it open, with the greyish pinkish ball of flesh visible, with the psionic tendrils marked out in purple "Next, a new creation of the Elders, the culmination of genetic manipulation, and the mixture of Human and Sectoid psionic potential, hardy, and powerful with psionic capabilities, it will be able to easily outmatch Popov in psionic abilities, unfortunately, to release the abilities, it must forfeit the protection of it's outer casing, so it will be vulnerable. No doubt, they will also be fearful of, the Gatekeeper". He turned to a final screen behind and above him, and an image of a large humanoid shape appeared, the front of it consisting of a large glass-like dome, with a thick yellow liquid inside, a faint outline of a creature just visible within. "Finally, the, Andromeddon, a suit designed by our greatest minds, to allow the new addition to ADVENT to survive within out atmosphere. A very tough casing to break through, and, if they manage to break through, the suit is implanted with a limited Virtual intelligence, to allow it to continue fighting on it's own, which should prove a nice surprise for any XCOM fighters involved".

He finally turned back to the assembled commanders. "XCOM are sure to remain on the offensive as long as they can. Allow them this, let them think they are winning. We shall hit them when they overreach themselves. The stand on the edge of a pit, just 1 wrong move, and we shall shove them into the abyss. Now go, assemble your men, while XCOM remains on the warpath, the, so called, rebellion, is left vulnerable"

Once they'd all left, he turned to the wall, which slid away into the wall, revealing a screen, onto which came the shadowy image of an Elder. He heard a voice, but it wasn't from any speaker or mouth, it came from his head. "You have failed us before, Karl" the voice dripped with venom. They used his previous name when they wanted to rile him up, or discomfort him. Unfortunately, it always worked.

"I understand that, Elder" he replied, trying to keep the annoyance from his voice, though they'd know it anyway, they were in his head. "I shall not fail you again"

"See that you don't. You know the only reason you are alive"

"Of course"

The image on the screen vanished, and the wall slid back into place. He took another deep breath. His memory wandered back to when he had been with XCOM, it seemed like an entirely different person he was seeing, and in truth it was. He remembered playing with Popov. Popov had always been extremely skilled at the games, while Karl had been 'wrecked' every time. But, he knew one thing, he was patient. He remembered from his time at XCOM. He knew the weaknesses and strengths of each of them.

Popov, a great shot at range, although he now lacked a sniper rifle, that still remained true, and with his powerful psionics, he was dangerous. But, Maxim did have a flaw, he did not take defeat well. It would be simple to make him angry, to make him careless, then he'd fall easier.

Haidar, her speed was impressive, and her skill was undeniable, and, unlike Popov, she was slow to anger. And she could adapt very well to situations. Combined with Popov's psionics, they were a powerful pair. However, she wasn't indestructible. As fast as she might be, she can still be wounded, and her armour is lighter than the others, so she's an easier target to finish off in fewer shots, if they hit. Killing her would throw Popov off kilter as well. She was a high priority target to kill.

Sanders, he was always strong, but, now was worse. He could dismember soldiers with his bare hands. But, he was careless, he cared little for his own protection. But he was tough as well. A dangerous one at close range, but, if kept at a distance, virtually harmless.

Ward posed a problem to their security. Despite their efforts to increase the firewalls and other protections, they couldn't seem to keep him out of their systems for long. But, outside of hacking, he was a minor threat, they'd need to ensure the Sectopod was as protected as possible against Cyber attacks.

Mr. Ash, as he'd learned he was called, the new XCOM sniper. He was a powerful force, and a part of the group helping XCOM in other ways, that they had as of yet been unable to identify. They'd captured a few of the 'Mr's', but they were prepared and loyal, and took their own lives before they could be interrogated, and very little could be learned from their minds. He was dangerous at range, and difficult to get to, he'd pose a problem. Assassination would be difficult against one trained in that art.

Molander, one of the squad leaders, highly intelligent and a skilled fighter, her knowledge of the workings of the ADVENT was disturbing, she was a threat they'd need to deal with.

The one they call, Pyro, the heavy weapons officer, his ability to deal out significant damage to both Organic and Synthetic opponents made him deadly. But, his inability to talk means a stealth strike could take him out easier than the others. Assassination would bring him down fairly easily.

Digkale, the other squad leader, a more conventionally skilled fighter than Molander, less knowledgeable than Molander, but still a big threat, and highly military behaviour, covert operations against her would be difficult.

O'Connor, previously a, rather vocal oppose of ADVENT turned fighter, his abilities at stealth makes him a great asset to XCOM, as he can infiltrate into many XCOM facilities, and has proven rather difficult to pin point during battle.

And finally, Garza. This was one he knew deeply, and from memories that didn't seem to be from a lifetime ago. Just 5 years ago, he had been his trusted lieutenant. He had sabotaged an operation, took out his chip, and escaped, and, apparently, found his way to XCOM. His knowledge of their working was great, he was the first target.

The Commander, was another matter entirely. Perhaps the greatest human tactician for over a thousand years, and he was a good fighter, and could anticipate his own movements, as he'd learned that day to his displeasure. He was a formidable opponent to take down, but, if he was brought low, XCOM would likely scatter like they had before. Ideally, they could recapture him, to run the network again, without his abilities, they'd been damaged. But recapture was too risky, he'd have to be eliminated.

As much as he'd hated to do it. There were groups outside of ADVENT that could be used for this purpose. Mercenaries, loyal only to their next payment, no matter the situation, mercenaries could be found. But, this 1 was unique. Previously part of a group now allied with XCOM, trained for years in his art. He was the poisoned dagger hanging over XCOM, waiting to drop at his order.

Karl was patient, he would wait for the perfect moment before he ordered the drop, and when that moment came, The Commander would fall.

He allowed himself a rare smile as he imagined the victory this would grant him. The Elders weren't happy about hiring Merc's, but that was exactly why he was with them, he thought 'outside the box'. He was the dagger while ADVENT was the hammer. Distract the foe with the Hammer, then the dagger can sneak in behind. He would end XCOM.

* * *

 **"You sure** you wanna go ahead with this?" Maxim asked. He and Aya were standing in his 'room' in the psionics training area.

"Have I ever changed my mind on anything in the past?"

"No"

"Then proceed"

"But-"

"Vampire" Aya interrupted "You said there was something weird, and I am curious to find out what it is"

"Didn't you hear about the cat?"

A slight smile came to Aya's lips "Just get on with it Max"

"Alright" He looked up at the hole thing that was usually drawing in some purple mist, but that mist was no longer there, the thingy he used in combat on his back was absorbing the latent psionic energies before the hole thing did... Apparently. "Let's do this shit". He took it off his back, and placed his hand inside the ball, scooped a handful, and held it in his palm "It might hurt a bit, I don't know" he said as he brought the purple glow from his hand, and lightly slapped it against her forehead.

Last time, it had been a 1-sided domination of the Viper, and it had just been him taking over, completely swallowing the Viper consciousness, and even that had given him a connection to Vipey. This time, it was a willing subject, with a very powerful will, and, it rather reminded him of the ability he used with Keith a few times, a merging of both of their consciousness, only, although he hadn't thought it possible, this seemed even more powerful. Their minds merged. He could see what she saw, feel what she felt, and he was sure she could do the same. As he saw what she saw, things looked, different. It took him a minute to put his finger on it, everything seemed, just a tiny bit slower than he normally saw things, like everything was in a very slight slow motion.

"Is this what things are always like to you?" He asked, although, he found he couldn't tell if he said it, or Aya said it.

"What do you mean?" She replied, or was it he that was answering her, man this was confusing.

"Everything seems, slower... Wait a second" He noticed something else strange, but, he couldn't get his finger on it.

"There's something else... Something... Weird, I don't know what"

"Perhaps it's the Sociopathy" Aya suggested, or was he saying it... God this was confusing... Who was thinking that. They were kind of like the same person, but not... Dear fuck did this give him a headache.

"Wait, does that mean I have that right now, or neither of us, how does that-... Wait, let's not get into that"

"Agreed"

"This is going to bug me all day unless I figure this out" Again, which one of them said that?

"Well hurry up, this is rather disorientating"

"Which of us said that?"

"I don't think there is separate us right now, I think we're just, we"

"This is giving me a headache"

"What _are_ you 2 doing" came a voice from the door, this time he knew who It was. Alex had shown up. As soon as they turned towards him, he immediately noticed what it was that was different. Looking towards him, he just knew some information about him, his psionics were weak, he was pretty un-athletic, but he was smart. Instantly he knew the best course of action to fight him. They'd need to get him before he could use his psionics, although weak they could still hurt if he wished, and could send them to their knees with pain for a short time. So they'd need to take him down fast, they didn't have their weapons, so Aya would dash over, while Maxim threw a psionic power at him to prevent him using the ability, then, while he was distracted, Aya would grab his head, and slam it into the wall with her Cybernetic arm, with that she could crush his head like a watermelon with 1 strong push into the wall, and that would be the end of him.

"Holy Crap!" He shouted, as he saw the difference. He knew it was him this time, as the surprise at realizing that had broken the connection, and they were separate. He turned to Aya. "Is that really how you see things?"

She cocked her head slightly "What do you mean?"

"Thing slightly slower than normal, which probably explains your speed, you're just always at a quicker pace than everyone. And then, when Alex walked in, you instantly knew the best way to, well, to kill him before he could react"

"Excuse me!?" Alex asked. But Aya ignored him.

"Of course, why do you think I can move at such speed, I just look at them and let my instincts take over" then she looked at him puzzled "You don't?"

"NO!"

"That's weird"

Suddenly he had another though, and quickly grabbed the knife from her boot, and tried to cut her arm. Before he'd even gotten the knife out of the boot, she'd grabbed his wrist. "What are you doing?"

"You didn't fell the pain when you got the new arm and I ripped your face back open... I wanted to test it"

She released his wrist, took the knife in her cybernetic hand, and while looking at him, sliced the blade across the tip of her index finger. It wasn't a deep cut, but poking something pointy with your fingertip accidently would hurt like fuck. Ow, that should have hurt like hell, yet she didn't make any reaction to it, other than to, after a second or 2 of bleeding, pressed it against her thumb, to block the bleeding.

"Just ask me before you grab for my knife"

"Uh, yeah"

"What the hell are you 2 doing!?"

"Science experiment" Aya deadpanned.

"We gotta go see Alice" Maxim said, grabbed Aya's robot arm, and began leading her towards the rooms, leaving Alex standing on the other side of the room, staring after them. Probably very confused.

* * *

 **Alice wasn't** in her room, which was strange. They checked the lounge room, and found Pyro and Roman playing Pool.

"Hey Roman" Maxim called in "You know where Alice is?"

"I think she's talking to the Commander, about the facility coordinates we got from whats-his-face"

"Thanks" Maxim called as he and Aya went back out "To the Captains Quarters"

"What do you think they're up to" Roman asked as he took a shot

Pyro shrugged, and made a grunting noise.

"Oh, Yeah... Mute... Never mind then"

* * *

 **As Maxim** approached the door, he stopped, he heard a noise. He put his ear against the door and confirmed he was hearing grunts of exertion from the Commander's Room. As he crouched there, with his ear pressed against the door, Aya cocked her head slightly as his strange behaviour "What are you doing?"

"I think they're doing it" he whispered

Aya rolled her eyes and pressed the Open door button. With a hiss, the door slid upwards, revealing, The Commander delivering a roundhouse kick into Alice's stomach, and she dropped to the ground holding her stomach and gasping for breath. They were both wearing, essentially, workout clothes. As she gasped for breath from the kick, the Commander brought his foot back from the kick, standing normally, but he took a step towards Alice "Are you alright?" he asked as he placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Yeah... I'm good" Alice gasped out "You've got... a strong foot"

"Ahem" Aya cleared her throat, and they turned to look over at them.

"Oh, can I help you Aya? We were just sparing" The Commander said, as Alice finally managed to stand back up.

"Actually, we wanted to talk to you, Alice" Maxim said.

"Oh, what about?" Alice asked

"A weird thing I found in Aya"

"Woah, TMI, I did not need to know that" The Commander turned around and went over to a desk, and busied himself shuffling papers.

"Not like tha- Ah screw it. Alice, can we talk in your room"

"Sure... Follow me" Alice said, giving them a weird look as she left the room.

"Wait... am I doing paperwork?" The Commander asked himself as they began leaving

"We'll finish later Ryan" Alice called, before she seemed to catch herself, clamping a hand over her mouth.

"Who's Ryan?" Maxim asked as they followed Alice

"Nobody" Alice said quickly, speeding up her walk, barely short of a jog

Aya rolled her eyes again and followed

"Who's Ryan?" Maxim asked Aya as they followed

She looked at him, with a very obvious 'Are you kidding' face. "The Commander"

"No it isn't!"

"He really builds up an image, then there's this un-intimidating, plain guy, called Ryan"

"He knows how powerful an image can be. But it seems we aren't supposed to know that"

"Yeah. Don't worry Alice, we won't tell anyone"

"Shut up!"


	20. Chapter 20: Secrets Unfold

**"So, what** is it you wanted?" Alice asked as she picked up her glasses from the table in her room.

"Well, we kinda did this uh, thing-" Maxim began

"This isn't a sex thing is it?" Alice interrupted him as she sat down at her computer

"Oh god no, get your head out of the gutter"

"To be fair, it does sound sexual with you constantly beating around the bush" Aya put in

"Because they keep interrupting me before I can explain it"

"Then explain it already" Aya looked at him.

"Well, I was working on a new psionic thing, I call it mind merge... you can problem guess what it does by the name, and earlier, when I did my inspiring thing to Aya, I felt something weird, so, once I'd learned that thing, I asked Aya if we could do it - DON'T - and, we merged minds, and, well, Aya instantly knows the best way to kill someone when she sees them"

Alice raised a disbelieving eyebrow "Really? Aya, what is the best way to kill me right now?"

"You are currently unarmed, and I am significantly faster than you, 1 simple punch into your temple with my cybernetic arm would fracture the skull, and knock you out instantly, and then, well, there are a variety of means afterwards" Aya said matter-of-factly.

"Interesting" Alice seemed to think for a moment, before her face lit up in realization, and she got from her chair and went over to one of the book cases along her walls.

"Alice, whatcha doing?" Maxim asked as she browsed the books

"I think I heard about something like this... Help me look"

"What we looking for?"

"The title is written in ADVENT"

"Goody"

They searched through the book cases for several minutes, man Alice had a lot of fucking books.

"Wait a minute. If this thing is in ADVENT, how are we gonna read it?" Maxim asked as he searched the 3rd bookcase... occasionally pulling out a book, it just felt right, resting for trapdoors or hidden rooms.

"Only half is in ADVENT. Peng translated it, and the second half is in English" Alice replied

"Ah"

They continued on for several more minutes... How many fucking books did this woman have?

"You do you know you can probably get these on your computer"

"Not these books"

"Found it" Aya said, as she brought out a thick book, hard cover, and, surprisingly, not covered in dust as Maxim had expected. She handed it to Alice, and she flicked through it.

"Now, where is it" she mumbled to herself as she flicked through

Maxim absent-mindedly pulled books out half way and put them back, still testing for trap doors, he was strangely convinced one of them would have one, every movie and game he'd ever seen, that had book cases, had a hidden room behind it.

"Here it is" Alice announced, and Maxim quickly shoved the book back into the case and came over to join the other two.

She had the book open, and, although the writing was in English, it might as well have been ADVENT for what Maxim could understand of it. A whole bunch of science techno-babble. But, and he felt like a 3-year-old for this, he could see the pictures.

There was an image of a figure, it looked human, but there was some differences, wearing a lab coat, looking at a large tube, too clouded to see in to. The figure didn't seem human, due to the face that it seemed, almost stretched, way too tall, and really thin, with long fingers, a thin face, and slanted eyes, along with long pointed ears (like an elf).

"What is this?" Maxim asked

"From what we could gather from it, perhaps the only document that records Miss Lost's group"

"Really?"

"We aren't certain, but it appears to be"

"What is this?" Aya asked, pointing towards the clouded tube in the picture.

"Well, this was a genetic engineering facility, from, roughly, 40 years ago. We believe, it was one of the operations of their group"

"Why was it in ADVENT?" Maxim asked

"Apparently they're trying to discover them as much as I am"

"Well, this is great, but what does this have to do with Aya?"

"Well, we believe they were working on, perfecting, essentially, the perfect soldier"

Maxim looked over at Aya "So, you're saying that..."

"Potentially. It says that the facility was attacked by a, even after so long, unidentified force, the facility was destroyed, and all their progress lost, presumed destroyed. A shame, they were working on a lot of other things that would have benefited the world greatly once they were completed"

"So, let me get this straight, you think I'm the result of some genetic engineering from Miss Lost?" Aya asked

"Precisely"

"Then I shall need to discuss thing with Lost" Aya said, before turning and walking out.

* * *

 **"Dun dun** duhhhh" Maxim smiled as he did the 'dramatic music'.

Alice looked at him "What was that?"

"I dunno. Just seemed like that would be the part of a movie, where there would be a dramatic fade to black with the dramatic music, then cut to a difference scene leaving the watcher like 'what the hell, what happened from there'"

Alice chuckled and shook her head. "You might want to go catch Aya, she might rip Lost's head off if she doesn't tell her what she wants"

"I don't think she'd rip her head off... Just an arm"

"And Lost'll just get a new one anyway"

"Yeah... So, you got a secret room in here or what"

* * *

 **Miss Lost** stood in her usual position as Aya walked in, although walked wasn't the correct word, it would be more accurate to say she stormed in. "Greetings Valkyrie, what can I help you with?"

"You created me didn't you"

"Straight to the point I see. Very well" There was a loud hiss, and, as lost brought her hood down, revealed one of her new improvements, over her mouth was now an object that very much resembled a kind of re-breather or gas mask, that would vent steam periodically. "Personally. I did not create you. At that point in time I had just joined, and was merely, I believe the equivalent would be an intern"

"I don't really care who did it. I just want to know about it"

"Is it really important? You were created, you have abilities exceeding that of almost all regular humans. You age slower, process things faster, and your body can adapt to extreme circumstances, such as your immunity to pain after those severe injuries.. Why do the details matter to you?"

"Because, if I know what it is that created these abilities, I may be able to use them more effectively"

"Unfortunately, I couldn't help you here if I wanted to. All our records of that facility, aside from a few brief mentions of their progress, were destroyed. I know little more than you do"

"Convenient"

"Indeed"

"So you can tell me nothing"

"Nothing useful"

"How was I created?"

"What do you mean?"

"As in, do I have biological parents"

"I believe so. A sperm and egg were required. Who they were I am unawares. But you would have little genetic link to them, as your genes had been heavily modified"

"How did I get out?"

"One of the security team. Working under the name of Mr Shale at the time, I believe he is dead now, was under orders to ensure your safety. He retrieved you before the facility was destroyed utterly. But he was pursued, and had to leave you at the Orphanage you were left at, to ensure they would not find you. It appears he was successful, and clever in that, as he was captured shortly after"

"You seem to know an awful lot considering you don't know much"

"Information is my business... Along with the selection of items I can collect and trade"

Aya turned to leave.

"1 moment. There is 1 piece of information I can provide that may lead you to uncover more"

"Why didn't you lead with that?"

"Because I only just received the information" she tapped the side of her head a few times, producing a strange clunking sound

"Well, what is it?"

"A facility location, and a man, who may know more"

* * *

 **Ash crouched** on top of the Avenger, Sniper Rifle in hand. He breathed out, and fired a shot. He looked where he had shot, and saw the lizard he had seen and fired at, had a neat hole through the head. He couldn't supress a slight fist pump.

"Impressive shot"

Ash jumped in surprise, to find Roman behind him, leaning against some antenna on the roof, wearing just a plain black shirt and trousers. It was weird seeing him without Armour and Weapons (Ash didn't socialise much)

"You do need to work on your spatial awareness though"

"Yeah. But I got to get my shots good first. I can rely on you guys to watch my back"

"Sure. But there will be times when we can't. Tunnel vision is the death of even the greatest sniper"

Ash leaned his sniper rifle against the box he'd been crouched behind, and stood up. "I guess that's why I never got far in the organisation"

"You are also nowhere near as stealthy as those other ones"

"Really raising my confidence here"

Roman smiled, and stepped forwards. "But, you are also a lot more human than them"

"Wha-"

"You care. You get nervous. You actually speak with emotions, rather than Monotone like the others. When you had to reveal you were with them, you were scared. Scared that we wouldn't accept you any more"

Roman took another step forwards, and place a hand on his shoulder "But, you came back, and worked hard to try to prove yourself to us, without realizing you didn't need to" With the hand not on Ash's shoulder, he scratched the back of his neck "I have secrets of my own... That, I am not yet ready to share in words, but" and, moving the hand from his neck to his pocket, he pulled out a small object, and thrust it into Ash's chest. He looked down for a second. "Ah. Fuck it" and he planted a kiss on Ash's lips.

Ash was shocked for a second... But found himself not fighting it. After a few seconds. Roman pulled back, and looked at Ash. "Sorry. If I didn't do that know, I don't think I'd ever do it" then, before Ash could respond, he walked off back to the hatch leading inside.

Ash watched him go, clutching the item Roman had given him. He didn't quite know what had happened. He looked down at the object in his hands, and saw a small, leather-bound notebook. It had no writing on the front. He took a deep breath, grabbed his rifle, and went back down to his room to read it.


	21. Chapter 21: Meeting

**Alright, we're back. Sorry about the break. But, you know, life happens, we're back now. This one will be a bit longer to make up for the break.**

* * *

 **Harold's blood** was on fire. It was always on fire nowadays. When he was in the field, fighting, the burning went away, but, in the Avenger, his blood just burned. His normal immunity to pain was useless against this burning. He's always had a high pain threshold, but this burning, a constant burning, he would go 3 days without sleep, just because it was impossible to sleep with this pain, but then we would crash out of exhaustion, and sleep where he fell, until the pain drove him awake.

He gritted his teeth against the pain, he was going this a lot, he'd gotten a gum shield 2 days ago when he saw a crack in one of his molars. He was destroying some dummies in the training room again, he only left this room for food, to relieve himself, or the rare occasions he slept, combat helped, not much, but it helped. Before all of this, he'd known 2 forms of martial art, Karate, and Krav Maga, he'd liked Krav Maga, lots of dirty fighting, and it did a lot of hurt. Those abilities, had gone out of the metaphorical window. Now, he relied on pure brute strength. He could overpower a Berserker, had, a few times, done just that, they had size and weight, but Harold had no limits on himself. Normally the body restricts itself to prevent damage, a normal person could try to bite as hard as they wanted, but their body would stop them from shattering their teeth, not Harold, he had to make sure he held back, or he could shatter his teeth by biting too hard. Berserkers may have a form of stim like himself, but theirs was controlled, restricted, to ensure they could function over their entire lives, Harold had no such limits. Tygan had told him a week ago that the stims were the only thing keeping him alive now, if he lost the stims, his heart would give out.

Harold had no future after this.

He punched the wall, dented the metal walls, and looked at his hand, the shattered bone protruding from the broken flesh, he watched it slowly begin knitting itself back together, he healed quickly now, the stims fully empowering his system, that's what was causing the burning blood. The hand would be useless for a normal person for weeks after a blow like that, Harold's hand would be good to go in a few hours. He was feeling anger now. Not the constant anger brought on by the stims, he was feeling genuine anger, as he hadn't felt since his brother had died, he shook, his entire body shook with rage. He needed to kill something, but all that was around him was dummy's.

Before, all of this, before XCOM, he'd planned to spend his time in the military unit with his brother, retire, then live out a life, a regular life, free from the conflict. He'd enjoyed fighting, he never denied that, he wasn't the selfless person doing something they hate to spare others, he'd enjoyed fighting, killing was never a big deal to him as it was to others, he'd never had any kind of PTSD during his off time, but, he'd always planned to leave the fight behind at some point. Now, that would never come. He would die fighting these aliens, or, even worse, he would survive through this, and then have to face attempting to live with this burning, he was aging slower as well, by time, he should be in his 50's by this point, but he was physically still in his late 30's. So, potentially a hundred years like this, maybe more. No, he couldn't bear that. He would see this through, then have the stims flushed from him. And he'd die, and finally leave this fighting behind. He breathed. In, and out. He stopped shaking. Rage was his weapon, his name, his very being, but he could control his own anger, even if he couldn't control the stims in him.

Harold's blood, was on fire.

* * *

 **Aya sat** in the Vertibird. She looked at the group in the ship, the one's who the Commander had chosen for this mission of hers.

Alice, of course, the leader of the little group. Alice or Stacy on every mission, guaranteed. Aya preferred Alice, Stacy was just too, military for her taste. Aya never focused on strategy, her body knew what to do, apparently she had a group of geneticists to thank for that little ability.

Maxim, naturally. They worked well together, his Psionics booster her speed, and their knowledge of each other letting them work together in a fight very well, they were a good team.

William, their resident hacker, for when they encountered security, if they had someone who was part of Miss Lost's group (they really should give them a name at some point, Miss Lost's group was a mouth full), they'd need great security, so Will would be needed for that, and being able to hack control of a turret was always fun.

Ash, a current member of Miss Lost's group, the sniper of their group, she wondered if Maxim resented him that, he'd always been the sniper, and Ash had taken his job. He was a good shot, a great guy to have watching your back, even if he was a half mile away.

And Roman, the explosives expert, they were going to blow the place once Aya had met with the person they were going here to meet. Throwing around grenades was always great, disorientate them so she can get in close.

She noticed looks that Ash gave Roman, really subtle ones, few people without Aya's innate perception of environments would notice it, but someone without Aya's lack of emotional understanding would know what the looks meant. As it was, she noted it, and ignored it, not her concern as long as Ash kept his eyes where they should be in the field.

She was ready for this, she wanted to know what had created her, it would be interesting to know exactly what her abilities entailed. Probably some kind of adaptiveness to it, since the arm incident, she felt almost no pain, she was aware of being hurt, but, it was unpleasant anymore. She wiggled the fingers of her cybernetic arm, the servo's whirring as they moved, not as dexterous as her real arm had been, but stronger and tougher. Thankfully, she was right-handed, so it didn't affect her much, and she learned quickly, so she'd gotten used to it easily, and never had those moments of losing control of it that, odd, she couldn't remember his name, Harold's brother, Smokes. Joe, she thought, but it wasn't important She was getting side-tracked, she had picked up some habits from Maxim, not all of them good.

"ETA 5 minutes" said Firebrand over the intercom.

Aya loaded the shells into her shotgun, she was, as they said on the shows Maxim had shown her, 'Frosty'.

* * *

 **Maxim looked** around the ship, it was really cool now, he'd gotten back his thing, or he'd been able to do it, and just forgotten, whatever, he had his Psionic Vision back. He hadn't realized how much he'd missed looking at his own skeleton... Wow, that was a weird sentence. But he was the first, and probably only, human psionic, so he was allowed to say weird shit.

After the whole, re-awakening thing, Maxim had kind of thought he'd get all, philosophical or something, wondering about the infetesimal nature of the universe, or whatever it was they said. Nope, he'd somehow managed to remain pretty much the same guy, just now he had white hair and purple eyes. He liked the purple eyes, they were fun, though he did sometimes scare himself looking into a mirror, because he'd forgotten about it. The White hair, he was, a bit self-conscious about, thankfully, he had short hair, so he didn't see it unless he looked into a mirror, and nobody mentioned it, so he forgot about it most of the time. He knew Aya would never care about something like that, but he did still feel awkward about his hair, it just felt wrong, he'd probably end up dyeing it, white hair on someone, how old was he now, 20 years, damn he was 48, Tygan told him his Psionics slowed his ageing though, so Physically, he was somewhere in his early to mid thirties. Anyway, X-Ray vision. He really needed to work on that tangent thing. Seeing straight to people's bones was weird, he kept wanting to start singing that 'Spooky Scary Skeleton's' thing, but that would get awkward, so he was just singing it in his head as he looked around at the Skeletons checking their guns. He missed his sniper rifle.

* * *

 **Alice** checked her rifle, this Plasma weaponry was certainly powerful, but she'd had to re-learn how they worked so she could properly check them, and, what was that noise. She looked up, and perked up her ears, was, someone humming? Probably Maxim or William, they're weird like that. She ignored the humming and made sure that the Plasma chamber was fully charged and there were no leaks, she was basically walking around with a rifle-sized nuclear reactor in her hands, the gun was better armoured than she was. But, hey, they can't get taken alive, she could fire her pistol into the chamber, and set off a blast like a small nuke. Not exactly something she planned on, but she had a backup plan for her backup plan, and ADVENT, weren't too kind to people they didn't like. Hell, Sean had only wrote about stuff, he wasn't even that popular, and he'd gotten his legs smashed to pieces, she didn't want to imagine what they'd do to an XCOM soldier.

She took her helmet from the overhead locker, and put it on her head, with a thought command, she activated her map of the area with a whispered verbal command, the inside of her helmet received an overlay of the area's layout, Tygan and Shen were really putting some thought into these designs, and they were working on a suit of Powered Armour for the crew. She looked at the map of the area, of course she'd reviewed this map a dozen times before, but, always double, and triple check your plans. There was a reason the Commander thought of her as his Second-In-Command (don't tell Bradford). They're plan, drop down just behind an abandoned Gas Station, abandoned since they used Electric vehicles now (although Maxim insisted it must be Nuclear because of the explosions when they were damaged too badly, but that was actually a Self-Destruct feature they put in them, she had no idea why a civilian car needed a self-destruct feature, but ADVENT were known for unnecessary security features), so the Petrol industry went right down the tubes, why they hadn't bothered to take it down, she didn't know, there was even still some Petrol in the pumps. They were going right across the street from the facility, there was a blind spot in the sensors that William had found, and they were going to fly right through that, and drop them in, then move into the Facility, find the room Aya's guy is in (even William couldn't get the Blueprints for this place), then hold position for a minute or 2 until Aya had dealt with him, place the charges, and Evac, simple. But Alice knew not to underestimate ADVENT. If HaA was there, (What they'd started calling the Hammer and Anvil group, especially not after one of them had almost killed Aya, only sheer luck and her reflexes had saved the first shot from getting her in the head, it hit her cheek for fucks sake, 2 inches higher and that 1 shot could have killed her, genetic engineering or no) then there could be serious trouble waiting for them, and even if they weren't there, you never knew when a new enemy was going to roll out.

Don't underestimate your enemy.

But, that goes both ways.

* * *

 **Ash climbed** up on top of the Gas Station, on the cover over the pumps, the others were moving up along the ground. He was admittedly, a bit distracted, first Roman kissing him, then reading that journal he'd given him, but, he'd been trained practically since birth, to master his emotions, block them out to let him maintain focus in any situation... He'd never been very good at it. He was not a good spy, but, he was a good sniper.

"Officer, MEC, Shield" Alices voice came over the coms.

"It got 'em" Maxim replied as Ash turned towards them, bringing his Sniper Rifle up, as he saw a purplish mist appear and swirl in a vortex around the ADVENT group, and they scattered "Aw"

A burst of plasma bolts fired out, but just missed the officer as he ducked behind the small walls on either side of the road in front of the gas station, Ash quickly adjusted aim, and took out the Shieldbearer by a single shot between the eyes, their extra armour not helping against his armour piercing ammo. As his arm went back with the recoil, he didn't resist it, letting it carry his momentum, and, with his left hand, brought out his pistol, and fired a shot, which the Officer again managed to avoid. He heard a blast, and looked over in time to see Aya just slipping back over the wall, as the MEC dropped to the floor. Damn she was fast, he'd looked away for less than 2 seconds, and she'd managed to cross the road into better range, shoot the MEC, then get back behind it before he even noticed she's moved. The Officer sprinted off before Ash had gotten his sniper rifle back up, a burst of plasma bolts chased him, but he disappeared into the facility before another burst could fire.

"He'll be getting friends, move up a bit" Alice ordered as the rest moved up to the edge of the road, taking cover behind the small wall. Ash saw one of the ADVENT Toll Booth's, and clambered onto the roof, keeping the high ground was important, it allowed him to shoot people over their cover, which ADVENT tended to do when he was there.

Aya hurdled the wall, but got about 3 steps before the did a backflip back over the wall, as the Turret on the roof fired a burst at the place she'd been a millisecond before, apparently it's range was just beyond the road. A small object flew out from the group on the road, over to the turret, it's shielding preventing the Turret's auto-senses from being able to detect it.

"It's mine" William called out. That was good it'd give them control of that turret, but the reactive firewalls of the ADVENT network reacted and kicked him back out. The others began moving up to the facility front door (might as well be direct, they knew they were there anyway, and it was covered by the turret).

"Guys inside. Ooh, I have a new thing" there was a Watch Tower in the way, so Ash didn't have vision on what they saw, but he heard an explosion, a plasma rifle burst, the turret firing, then an earth-shattering boom, and he was what looked like a massive metal foot break through one of the walls. The foot seemed to stumble a bit, and Ash fired a shot, but the Watchtower meant he could only see the foot, and it recoiling messed up his shot, so the shot missed it by inches. The leg extended, and Ash could see the top of some box appear over the Watch Tower, not enough to see what it was, but enough to know this thing was huge. Some ADVENT weapons fired, with Ash still not able to see, so he fired another shot at the leg, aiming for the joint, his shot struck true, and slammed into the metal joint, at the same time a slight blue flash burst around the leg, William had launched one of the new EMP grenades, apparently they'd come through engineering just in time. The next 20 seconds or so was a blur for Ash, he couldn't get line of sight because of the Watch Tower, but couldn't move forwards yet as he was covering the flank, if anything tried to outflank them from either side, he could see it, and kill it, but he had no sight on the front, damn that Watch Tower, why hadn't he noticed it. What he did pick up was rather confusing a lot of shouting, both from the XCOM and ADVENT soldiers, and the massive metal leg fell backwards after a double shotgun blast, and there was a massive detonation. A lot more shots, some explosions, and shout of pain from one of the XCOM soldiers, and, he saw another one of the giant metal legs, though this time he saw the entire thing. It was like a tank on legs, just a big metal block with big metal legs. Easily as tall as the facility, and apparently, there'd been 2 hiding inside the facility. This was either an attempt at a trap, or just a horrible convenience, thankfully, he'd brought the AP ammo today. He fired a shot straight into the middle of the box, the shot ripped through, but apparently he missed anything vital to it, and it didn't seem to affected, but several bursts of Plasma weaponry, a burst from an ADVENT gun (Maxim must have done that mind control thing again), and a pistol from Alice finished it off, and it began falling backwards before it detonated, taking out an entire wall. Another one of those and they wouldn't even need the X4 charges to take the facility down.

"Ash, get over here, we're going to huddle up while Aya finds the guy we're here for" Alice's voice commanded. Ash quickly put his Sniper Rifle on his back, and came running over. The entire front of the facility was just, gone, ADVENT corpses and rubble everywhere, no XCOM corpses, though he noticed Maxim was holding his stomach, he didn't seem to be dying, and no one else was hurt. He joined up with the others, taking cover behind what they could find in the facility, forming up in front of the destroyed wall.

"Damn, what the hell happened over here" Ash asked as he saw the extent of the destruction, it would be a minor miracle if the guy Aya was coming for hadn't been blown up in the carnage.

* * *

 **"Sectopods" Maxim** replied as Ash came over to join up with them, and Aya ran off further into the small facility to find the guy.

"What?" William asked "Sectopod?"

"The big robot thing, they were in the initial thing, they're taller now, and the guns are a bit different, but they seem to be the same" Maxim replied, reloading his rifle, he'd hated those things, but back in the old X-COM days, at least he'd been a good distance back and never had to get anywhere near them, now he had to fight them up close, and he couldn't even effect them with most of his psionics, since there was no mind to hit with his mind bullets.

"Why'd you call them Sectopods?" Alice asked

"Well, initially- Shit, reinforcements flare" Maxim interrupted himself as he noticed said flare land just outside the facility, there should have been a wall between them, but, the Sectopods liked to blow stuff up, and bringing an Explosives expert didn't exactly help the structural damage. But hey, they had clear lines of fire now. Maxim didn't even have enough time to register exactly what the reinforcements were, he guessed a couple Troopers and a MEC, but with all of them just firing into them, they didn't get 2 steps away from their landing zone.

"Anyway" Maxim continued as he again reloaded his gun (video game conditioning told him to replace his ammo whenever he had a chance), thankfully with these new plasma weapons it was actually just venting the main chamber, so he didn't have to worry about making sure he didn't jut drop a mostly-full clip on the ground (Which the Commander had yelled at him a lost for the first few missions in the old days until he'd gotten it into his head to not drop the mostly full clips). "Sectopods, I think initially they thought they were piloted by Sectoids"

"And were they?" Alice asked. Maxim was pretty sure she'd be taking notes if she had any paper on her right now.

"I don't think so. I never really focussed on it too much, I just learned which bits of it are best to shoot at. But these new ones are definably not piloted, Psionic stuff did exactly jack shit to them" Maxim replied, only now realizing he still had his Psi-Vision on. Had he been using it the entire battle? He turned off his vision, just as he turned to see Aya exiting out of the building. "So, how'd it go?"

"I discovered what I wanted to know, and terminated him" Aya replied, matter-of-factly... Well, everything she said was matter-of-factly.

"Terminated him?" William asked, and then, before people could give him the condescending answer "I know what it means. I meant why did you terminate him, there's room on the Ship"

"Because he was severely injured, and would not have survived being move out of that room, let along a trip in the Vertibird, where we will undoubtedly have to avoid ADVENT interceptors due to the time we spent here. And his defences had almost been breached. So it was either terminate him, or allow ADVENT to learn about XCOM and Lost's group" Aya said while making her way towards the EVAC area.

As Aya walked past a body of a Stun Lancer, the Stunny immediately jumped to his feet, and attempted to attack Aya with a large rock (apparently it wasn't quite as dead as they'd thought) but, without even looking back at the suicidal Lancer, she kicked behind her, catching the Lancer in the stomach, making him double over, then spun and delivered an elbow to the back of his head with her cybernetic arm, her elbow sunk a good inch into the helmet, and there was an audible crack as the Lancer dropped, actually dead this time. She continued with the momentum of the elbow, and spun back around. The whole event took about as long as it took Maxim to summon a Void Lance, which just evaporated anything that was left of the body just as Aya stepped away. A jet of what appeared to be black mist, with purple swirling in it (Psionic energy appeared purple as Maxim had figured out a while ago), flew out of the Psi Amp on Maxim's back, and shot like a jet straight through the rock the Lancer had been behind, and there was a smell of burning, for about half a second, as the Lancer was vaporised, and the rock fell to the ground in 2 pieces, neatly burned in half by the lance.

Aya didn't even break her pace, she delivered the elbow, heard the blast of the Null Lance, and kept her pace, she hadn't even broken her stride to take down the wounded lancer, and ignore the Psionic blast behind her, and just went over to the ropes Firebrand was dropping down.

The others, weren't quite as composed.

"Woah, the fuck was that Vamp?" William exclaimed as he practically leaped backwards from Maxim like he was Radioactive (which technically he was, but nothing that would be harmful to anyone).

"Hey, I did it right this time" Maxim said, seemingly to himself. He'd been trying out this new ability (outside and facing away from the Avenger of course) but hadn't managed to get it quite right until now) "Oh, yeah, shit, sorry. I call that a Null Lance"

"Why didn't you tell us about this?" Roman asked as they all recovered from the shock of it and were headed towards Firebrand, conscious of the fact that if they weren't quick Bradford would start complaining at them.

"I hadn't gotten It right yet.. Apparently I needed the right conditions or whatever. I'll give you a list of all my abilities and abilities in training next time all right. It'll take me a while though, I got a lot of shit going on" Maxim said as he grabbed onto the rope, and was pulled into the ship.

"I don't doubt it" Alice said, as she too was pulled in "Your teach gave me a bit of a run down a while ago. I could write an Omnibus just on the Theory of Psionics, let alone the Specific uses and the unique interactions with it in each individual".

"An Omnibus?" Ash asked. Maxim was really pleased he'd asked it first.

"A series of 3 books, more or less" Alice replied.

"More or less?" William asked

"Yes, more or less, as in, i'm dumbing it down for you so I don't get 50 follow up questions"

"That's generally a good idea with those 3" Aya said, gesturing towards Maxim, Ash, and William... Maxim had to agree with her.

"What about Roman?" William complained.

"When was the last time you heard Roman say more than 3 sentences over a mission" Aya replied

"I don't talk much or ask a ton of questions" Roman said.

"That's 2 sentences this mission by my count" Maxim said "Wanna see if we can break the record. I think it's 5"

"Hey.. Where's NOCLIP?" William asked, looking around

"No Clip?" Ash asked

"A hack for games" Maxim replied "... And what he calls his GREMLIN"

"It's right here" Aya replied, pointing to where the little robot hovered above their heads, almost invisible because of it's dark colouring and silent engine.

"Shit... I forgot how quite he'd gotten. Mark 3 GREMLIN" William said, the GREMLIN hovering back down near his head where he usually preferred it to hang out when it wasn't doing something. "Sorry about that, didn't mean to freak you guys out or anything"

"I wasn't freaked out" Roman said "Anyone else?"

A chorus of negatives.. And 1 spout of Maxim saying "4".

"Well, great to see you all care so deeply about my NOCLIP" William huffed.

"Stop referring to it in capitals, it doesn't stand for anything" Maxim said

The others looked at him.

"What?"

"How can you tell how he's spelling it?" Alice asked.

Maxim held up his hand, and a small amount of the purple energy from the Amp of his back floated over and formed into a small ball of purple of energy, which then quickly flashed out to fill the entire cabin "I'm Psionic remember" and he looked over at Roman "That's just some flashy stuff I can do. No actual effect aside from looking pretty"

"Do a dragon" William said

"I'd also like to see a Psionic dragon" Ash said

Maxim rolled his eyes, but never-the-less, a small amount of the purple energy formed in his hand, into the shape of a dragon, the general, scaly fire breathing variety, and flew around the cabin, this was actually something he did to practice concentration, make something like that, and have an obstacle course set up, and make it go through the course while playing a difficult game.

"Magic" Ash said

"Science" said Alice

"Science-Magic" said Maxim

"A form of energy manipulation based on science but that appears to be, and could easily be mistaken for magic by those that did not know the science part" said Aya

"You ruin everything" Ash said

"You guys might wanna buckle up, we got some interceptors coming in" Firebrand said over the intercom, just as the ship began evasive manoeuvres.

"Crap, I hate this part" William said "Motion sickness"

"We know" Alice said, as she threw a bag at him. "Just try to be quiet until we get back".

* * *

 **I'll be trying to get at least 1 part a week, but, as I've said, don't hold me to this, it'll depend on how busy I am, and how into the writing I get, if I end up getting really into it, there could be multiple parts a week. But there could be less if I end up not getting into it as much. As I've said, I'm bad at keep a schedule.**


	22. Chapter 22: The one with the Talking

**I know I said one a week, but it's been more difficult than I thought to get the time. So I've given up on trying to keep any time of schedule, so these'll just come out when they come out. Sorry about that, but there's stuff going on, and these can take a while to write, and I'd rather not pump out shit just to get parts out.**

* * *

 **Aya stepped** into the room, the door hissing shut behind her. She held her shotgun at the ready as she advanced inside, a rhythmic beeping giving away the presence of some form of life support machine. She turned the corner, to see an extremely old man laying in something resembling a hospital bed, with numerous devices attached to him, clearly meant to monitor his life signs. The man was bald and liver-spotted from age. He looked up as Aya approached.

"At last, you arrive" the man's voice came out in a rasp, as if it was difficult to talk "I've been awaiting your arrival, for quite a long time"

"Who are you?" Aya asked

"I long ago left my name. Became a Mr. Right now, Mr Vegetable seems fitting" the man said this with a smile visible through the oxygen mask. "But that is not important, you came here to discover who you are"

"I came because I was told you could tell me more about where I came from"

"Indeed. Give me time, and I will tell you, talking isn't too easy for me in this state"

"I don't have time, reinforcements will be here soon"

"Of course, of course, in that case, I cannot tell you what you wish. But there's another way I can give you this information"

"Which is?"

"When I was brought here, I removed the information they desired from my mind, into a secondary compartment I had implanted. Upon my death, it would be purged, and it is extremely well protected, which is why I have been kept alive, I can give this to you, though I need something in return"

"Which is?"

"I want you to kill me"

"Deal"

"As quick as I expected. Allow me a moment" The man's eyes glazed over for a few moments, before returning to normal. He then looked over to Aya "Could you cut one of my arms fee?"

With one fluid movement, Aya drew her blade, and severed the numerous sensors and IV's on the man's left arm.

"My thanks" he reached behind his head, and, with a slight grunt, a sickening wrenching noise and burst of blood, he held out his hand to Aya, which contained a small chip. "It was well hidden, they had no idea it was on my person"

"So what do I do with this?"

"It will work like any USB, just plug it into a computer, and you will have access to the files with all the information you need"

"Now I'm to kill you"

"Yes. I tire of all of thi-"

"You don't need to justify it" Aya replied, drawing her blade and shotgun "Any preference?"

"Just make it painless"

Aya then quickly brought up the shotgun, and fired a blast into the mans head, instantly destroying his entire head, and a small amount of the upper torso.

She pocketed the chip, and headed back outside to rejoin the others.

* * *

 **Maxim fidgeted** in the new armour "Wow this feels weird"

"Why does it feel weird, you had that Spider Suit before didn't you? That had servo's that helped movement didn't it?" Alice replied to his discomfort in the new Powered Armour

"Yeah, but only in the legs. This thing gets my arms as well. It's just weird. I'll get used to it. I still miss the grappling hook, the broken ribs were worth the positioning of the grappling hook... And it was cool to be able to grapple around like Batman"

"But that's not too helpful for you any more"

"Stop killing my dreams"

"I heard Shen's working on a suit with a grappling hook right now, for Aya and Sean"

"Are you trying to make me cry? Because I will cry"

"I saw some huge suit in the works for Punchy Mc Punchyson over there" William said, pointing to Harold, who, true to the name William just gave him, was in the process of punching the shit out of a wall.

"My Psionics go nuts when I cry. Do you want a Null Lance?"

* * *

 **The Commander** stood before the huge screen In his room, a map of the world open on it, displaying all known military assets, belonging to both ADVENT and XCOM, unsurprisingly, there's more ADVENT assets than XCOM assets.

"I have no idea how you make heads or tails of that screen" Alice said, looking at the screen over the Commander's shoulder "It just looks like a bunch of random structures over the planet to me"

The Commander gazed at the screen for a few moments longer, before pressing a button on a remote, and the screen went back into the wall. "I'm not really sure either. It just, makes sense to me, I guess I just make connections in the chaos"

"I guess that's how you survived for so long hooked up to the ADVENT network"

"And how we've done so much damage to ADVENT after you got me back"

"Well, there's also Myself and the other soldiers who've done pretty well"

"You guys too, you're helpful"

"Uh huh"

The Commander looked at the table of paper work that Alice had come to help him deal with "I just hate how much paper work there is"

"We need to make sure they can't hack into it"

"But I just hate it. It's somehow even worse than when we were an official government operation. You'd think the paper work wouldn't be needed when we're a guerrilla fighting force"

"We're not a guerrilla fighting force. We're more of a rebellion movement"

"You know what I mean"

"Yes, yes I do"

They continued to work through the huge stacks of paper on the Commanders desk, after almost half an hour of methodical work, they had made it about half way through the stack.

"We're making good progress here" The Commander said "I can almost see if the desk is wood or metal now"

"It's wood"

"Stop killing my funnies"

"Your funnies?"

"I'm not good at the wordy things"

"The great Commander, saying wordy things"

"I know tactics, not human interactions"

"Apparently not"

"Oh, and, speaking of not knowing social things" The Commander began speaking rather rapidly "I've seen videos and movies and things where the guy just completely misses any hints and looks like an idiot, and anyways what i want to say here is just-"

"What are you saying here?"

"I just wanna know, so I'm not seeming like an idiot to everyone. Have you been dropping any hints at anything?"

"What?"

"Like, have you actually been flirting with me, and I've been thinking you're just being friendly or something"

"Why would you-"

"Because i just have to say that if there is then, I'm sorry, i like you, as a friend, you're like a sister and a friend, but i don't feel that-"

"Commander"

"I don't really feel that way about-"

"Ryan!"

The Commander jumped as she shouted to shut him up.

"To answer your question, no, I have not been, dropping hints, I don't know where this is coming from, and I don't get how your head went to that place right now"

"Well... I've wanted to ask that for a while, because, you know, I don't want to have been being an idiot for a few months without realizing it, and then we weren't talking about anything else, so this seemed like a good time to bring it up, like I said, I'm not good at the social"

"It's fine, I wasn't hinting at anything, and now i know there's no point to even thinking about hinting"

"Look, it's not about you or anything"

"It's about you?"

"Well, yes"

"You know that's why you say when you break up with someone right"

"Yeah, but, it's true. Look. You're a very attractive, smart woman, and any man would be lucky to have a partner like you. But it's just, I"

"I get it, you're gay, There's no need to be so weird-"

"No, that's not it. I've never been interested in, well, anyone before, I've just never felt that need for anything"

"So you just don't get sexually attracted to people?"

"No. I mean, I still like people, and you're a great person to hang around, I've just, never been, into that"

"You know there's a name for that, right?"

"What?"

"Can't remember it off the top of my head, but it's a kind of sexuality where you just don't get sexually attracted to people"

"Wait.. You don't know the name off the top of your head. The great Archive doesn't know something?"

"Do you still want me to help you with these papers"

"Yes please"

* * *

 **Aya sat** in her room, at the computer, and inserted the chip the old man had given her. The screen was quickly filled with documents which she began to read through. This would take a while.

* * *

 **The Commander** once again sat at his desk, the screen back up with all the various assets. "This was so much easier when we were government-funded"

He took a deep breath, and cracked his knuckles. "We've gotta find where Hammer and Anvil are based. They're the biggest threat ADVENT has"

"Just finding it is only half the battle, we'd then have to fight into a heavily defended headquarters" the Chairman's epic voice came through the screen

"And finding it will not be easy, they have it extremely well hidden" the metallic voice of Miss Lost came through "And we don't have the numbers to brute force through the front door even if we do find it"

"Just knowing where they operate from will help me anticipate what they're likely to do" the Commander replied "But it's not like there's some obvious gap that the base could be. It doesn't have to be huge to work as their headquarters, and be well defended"

"Well Commander, you're the tactical mind here. I will return to managing the Resistance cells we have contact with until you have an idea" The Chairman's voice winked out.

"I love his voice so much"

"So you say almost every time you talk to him"

"It's just so cool"

"So do you have any ideas as to where to go from here?"

"Shen and Tygan are working on a Facility on the Avenger that will let us investigate that vial from the first Facility we hit, which I just realized has been pretty much sitting in storage for a couple months, and the brain thing of that Codex guy"

"Sounds rather promising. Keep us informed. We will continue attempting to draw out information from ADVENT. Lost out"

The Commander slumped down in his chair. "Ughhh, I haven't slept in 3 days. I need a nap". He turned to the side, and pressed a button "Central, I'm gonna get some sleep, wake me up if anything happens"

"Will do Commander" Bradford's voice came back through the intercom "You should really get more sleep, I managed things without you for 20 years, I can handle a day or 2 without you"

"I'll get some proper rest when we've killed ADVENT" The Commander replied

"Just don't burn yourself out, we'll need you at the end"

"I know my limits. I can manage" He clicked off the intercom, got up, and headed over to his bed, which had not seen much real use, and promptly collapsed onto it

* * *

 **Maxim stood** in his room, wispy purplish figures floated about the room, all of them looking like a creature from a different game he's played. Dozens of the things floated around, some aimlessly floating, some doing complicated manoeuvres, and some engaged in fights.

To any with Psionic abilities themselves, they would also see what seems to be a small purple flame within his pupils, the sign that he's using his Psionic Vision as well, and a light purple glow around his entire body betraying the fact that he's also using his 'Passive Abilities' as he calls them.

"To think there was a time I struggled to keep the Psi Vision up"

Maxim gazed around the room, looking at all the Psi Figures floating around. He held up his hand and a ball of purple and black energy formed. He passed the Psi Energy ball back and forth in his hands "I wish I could juggle, this would look so cool. But if I drop it, I'll destroy the floor".

* * *

 **Sorry that this took so long, like I said, finding the time is a bit difficult, and finding time with ideas of how to start the next part is even more difficult (Starting it is the hardest part, after that, I just kind of follow it along and the story guides me, but thinking of how to start it is a bit difficult). But I'm getting back into XCOM, and that makes me want to write, since in order to continue on the game, I need to get the story caught up so I don't completely forget what happened, or get missions confused.**

 **And I know this is thinking a bit far ahead, but I was worried about what I'd do after this ends, as I do enjoy writing these. But with the new DLC/Update thing, War of the Chosen, that really changes the game, I'm pretty sure I'll do another one of these, in another XCOM World, with new characters. But this is going to be quite a while before this comes up anyway. Just wanted to mention my idea.**


	23. Bad News Everyone

**After a long break i was planning on getting back to continuing this game. However, when i got back to XCOM 2 to continue the game for the story, all of my saves were gone.**

 **I don't know what caused the saves to go, i hadn't uninstalled the game or even gone into the files for anything.**

 **So, i have to decide whether to make up the final missions, try to re-play the game in a similar enough way/just change names when i get there, or re-start the story.**

 **I believe the best solution to do sort this out, is to re-start the story.**

 **The War of the Chosen expansion (Which is what i suspect caused the save removing) seems to be better for a narrative position, and I've also gotten Shen's Last Gift DLC (Not getting the Alien Hunter DLC because i don't fancy having one of the characters just stomped by a ridiculously powerful boss. The chosen are tough, but they're manageable, and capture rather than instant kill soldiers, so are much better for stories).**

 **So this version of the story must unfortunately come to an end. I don't have an idea for the title for the new version. I'll be keeping Maxim, Aya and Harold continuing on from the first story, since they tie the world together, but with the soldier bonds and everything else WotC introduces i feel a fresh new bunch of soldiers would work better.**

 **So, sorry about the absence and ending of the story, but i prefer to leave the story writing until i'm feeling it rather than putting up sub-par stuff. The WotC and Shen's Last Gift will give me more story stuff to work with, and the bonding mechanics will make my interactions with Aya and Maxim work in game as well.**

 **I've also learned a lot more about how to do this writing so the new one should be higher quality (i'll be using a grammar-checker and proof-reading a bit more this time). I don't know when the first part'll be up, i've got to figure out a name and that's a week of thinking on it's own, but i plan on getting it up within a month (though you should know by now not to trust me when i mention time plans)**


End file.
